The Education and Culture Committee’s plan to review bills that would allow the government to recruit students from China was unsuccessful yesterday after Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators questioned the legitimacy of the committee head’s move to change the agenda less than two days ahead of the meeting.
DPP Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) said the committee was scheduled to discuss unfreezing the budget request of the National Youth Commission yesterday, but lawmakers on the committee received a notice at 5pm on Tuesday that the committee would instead review amendments to the University Act (大學法) and the Junior College Act (專科學校法) — two bills proposed by the Ministry of Education to allow Chinese students to enroll in Taiwanese universities.
Chen criticized convener of the committee Huang Chih-hsiung (黃志雄) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), saying that changing the agenda violated legislative procedure.
“Article 16 of the Rules of Procedure of the Legislative Yuan stipulates that legislators should be informed of any changes to the agenda at least two days before the meeting except for special circumstances. Why should this issue be considered a special circumstance?” Chen said.
Chen said Huang had also violated resolutions passed by the committee on Nov. 18 and Jan. 8 that the bills be stalled until Minister of Education Cheng Jei-cheng (鄭瑞城) reports to the committee on the ministry’s proposals to ensure the rights of students in Taiwan.
DPP Legislator Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) accused the committee of bowing to pressure from China.
“I wonder if the KMT secretly promised China something during the third round of cross-strait talks and now the KMT is in a hurry to review the bills,” Kuan said. “Taiwan and China’s economies have become highly integrated. Isn’t that enough? Should we hurry to embrace each other in education?”
Huang defended himself by having a conference department official reiterate legislative procedure, saying that what he did was in line with the regulations.
Kuan and Chen took over Huang’s microphone when Huang was about to call for a vote on whether to continue discussion of the bills.
KMT Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) then engaged in a shouting match with the DPP legislators, accusing the DPP of being afraid of “everything.”
DPP legislators said they were fighting for Taiwanese students’ rights. The meeting came to a standstill when lawmakers failed to agree on an agenda.
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