The NT$610.8 billion arms deal with the US is no longer about Taiwan's military needs -- it has become a political football for lawmakers to use as they seek an edge in the December legislative elections.
The astronomical amount the government wants to spend is to purchase three types of weapons: diesel submarines, P-3C maritime patrol aircraft and Patriot anti-missile systems.
PHOTO: LIAO CHENG-HUEI, TAIPEI TIMES
While the airplanes and the missiles have not raised much of a fuss, the lawmakers from different camps have been arguing about the subs.
Consequently, the Ministry of National Defense and Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers have conceded that it's possible the budget could be cut by NT$100 billion if the submarines were not assembled here. Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) expressed a similar opinion after he led a group of lawmakers to the US in June to discuss the arms deal.
Wang has also made it clear that before the budget can be approved by the legislature, the statute governing the arms deal has to be passed by the legislature first.
"We can count on the statute being delivered to the related committees for review before the legislative election, since all sides have agreed to that," Wang, also a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) vice chairman, said yesterday.
Wang has repeatedly said as much during the past few weeks. He has also said that the passing the budget would have to wait till after the election.
The ministry sent both the statute and the budget to the legislature at the end of the last legislative session, but the statute is stalled in the Procedure Committee because of strong opposition to it from the pan-blue camp.
The situation got even more complicated as the People First Party (PFP) caucus proposed its own version of the statute two weeks ago, which stipulated that the budget can only prepared within the regular annual budget.
Instead of discussing and debating the arms deal in a professional manner in the National Defense Committee or in the plenary sitting, the lawmakers are trying to reduce the complicated issue into simple black and white soundbites in a bid to attract voter support.
CAMPAIGN TOPIC
For example, DPP Legislator Lee Wen-chung (李文忠) and PFP Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方), the two on the National Defense Com-mittee who have spoken most frequently on the arms deal, have produced their campaign materials based on their arms-deal platforms.
While Lee outlines the reasons why Taiwan needs the new wea-pons and highlights his efforts to push the deal through in a campaign brochure, Lin is appealing to voters by using "Say no to the NT$610.8 billion arm deal" as his campaign slogan.
But at the same time, questions were raised about the opposition's seriousness in blocking the procurement budget after the National Defense Committee rushed through next year's annual national defense budget -- worth more than NT$ 200 billion -- in just 17 minutes this week.
The smooth passage of that bill was a result of the absence of opposition lawmakers. The meeting was only attended by the commit-tee's chairman for the week, PFP Legislator Nelson Ku (顧崇廉), Lee and DPP Legislator Tsai Chi-fang (蔡啟芳).
Since the annual budget was passed the media have slammed opposition lawmakers for neglecting their duties and questioning their intentions on the arms deal given that they didn't even bother to review the annual budget.
As usual, the DPP and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) have united on the arms deal, although the DPP is feeling the heat much more as the governing party while the TSU has focused its election campaign platform more on the efforts to write a new constitution and name ratification.
GREENS UNITED
The DPP caucus has made it very clear that now the arms deal is key to the election.
"Now we are using it as an election issue and seeking public support to back us up," said DPP caucus whip Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯).
Lee, the DPP caucus' unofficial spokesman on the arms deal issue, agrees with Tsai.
"The more we lose in the legislature, the more we will score with the public. If the statute is not approved before the legislative election, I believe it will be a help to our campaigns," Lee said.
Lee said the pan-blue's opposition to the arms deal, coincidentally or not, matches China's expectations, for Beijing is the main critic of the deal.
"But at the same time, the government needs to explain clearly and in detail to the public why we need to spend so much money on these weapons, otherwise the public may be reluctant to support the sky-high expense," Lee said.
Lee attacked the pan-blue camp's about face on arms purchases.
"The proposal to purchase all three weapon systems was proposed and okayed by the KMT government. That government decided to buy the submarines in 1995, the anti-submarine aircraft in 1997 and the Patriot anti-missile systems in 1998," Lee said.
Lee pointed out that KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) was premier and Nelson Ku was the chief of the navy when the government decided to buy the submarines, and Lien was the premier who signed off on the aircraft purchase.
Lien has also come under attack from President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) on the same grounds.
The TSU, out of concern for national security, has given its support to the arms deal without fussing about the cost.
"Only by having a strong national defense as backup can we have enough chips to negotiate with China," said TSU caucus whip Huang Chung-yuan (黃宗源).
"The top priority now is to buy the best weapons available to protect our homeland. The price is not the issue here. We cannot simply measure the arms deal by the price," Huang said.
But the TSU is not particularly eager to appeal to the public during the legislative campaign over the arms-deal issue.
"The arms deal is not the TSU's main election focus," said TSU caucus whip Chen Chien-ming (陳建銘).
PURE BLUE OPPOSITION
The cooperative effort on the part of the KMT and PFP caucuses in blocking discussion of the arms-deal statute in the Procedure Committee has made the public consider them to be on the same side, but there are subtle differences in the two caucuses' stances.
Wang has repeated several times in the past few weeks that he would help push the statute through the Procedure Committee and allow the statute to be delivered to the related committee for review before the legislative election.
Since Wang has made such a clear promise, the KMT caucus, although often sounding as if it is opposed to the deal, has taken an ambiguous attitude toward it. This ambivalence might be caused by Lien's role in the initial arms requests.
"We have not formed an opinion about whether to allow the statute to pass through the Procedure Committee or not before the election," KMT caucus whip Huang Teh-fu (黃德福) said, even though the current legislative session will soon be suspended for a month ahead of the elections.
Wang has hinted that it would be easier for the legislature to discuss the arms deal the elections.
Although Wang said that all sides agreed to have the Procedure Committee pass the statute before the election, the PFP's attitude remains doubtful.
The PFP played a key role in blocking the statute and the budget plan, but its caucus whip, Liu Wen-hsiung (
"Elections are all about votes, and since the polls show that a certain amount of the voters do not support the arms deal, the PFP has found this to be a good election issue," Liu said. "Further, it is also the lawmakers' duty to review the budget carefully."
"We are not opposed to building a stronger national defense and buying weapons. We are just opposing to arms deals that waste the taxpayers' money," Liu said.
Another PFP legislator pointed out that adopting an anti-arms deal strategy would help with the election campaign, but the legislator admitted that rushing the national defense budget through the committee this week hurt the opposition because it could cause the public to doubt how genuine they are about blocking the deal.
Meanwhile, the PFP's Lin is still raising complaints about the budget plan.
"The defense ministry now says the submarines will not be assembled locally, yet the budget plan still includes the cost of local assembly. If the ministry wants the legislature to review the budget plan, they should prepare a new plan that includes the cost of overseas assembly first," he said.
Lin said he didn't object to the notion of reviewing the statute before the election. But since the time is getting short, he said, it would be best if Wang could convene an inter-party negotiation to push the statute through the Procedure Committee before the election.
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