A legislative committee meeting was marred by several recesses yesterday as it sought to pass revisions to the Organic Act of the Executive Yuan (行政院組織法) after opposition from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus.
While the committee approved two articles in the morning, the afternoon session went into a recess shortly after it began because of an insufficient quorum. The meeting was adjourned 30 minutes later.
The meeting got off to a rough start in the morning when committee chairwoman, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Pan Wei-kang (潘維剛), intended to review the amendments article by article.
DPP Legislator Yu John-dow (余政道) asked Pan to postpone the review process until the executive branch sends the legislature all five bills related to government restructuring. DPP Legislator Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) was upset and pounded on the table when Pan did not allow him to speak.
The commotion led to the first recess. When the meeting reconvened 10 minutes later, Ker lodged a protest and said he hoped the government was serious about restructuring.
“I don’t want to see the legislature pass the bill just because President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said so,” he said. “The country’s biggest problem now is that the president is meddling in legislative affairs.”
Ker said Ma had trampled on the constitutional system by ordering a speedy passage of the Organic Act of the Executive Yuan during this legislative session.
Ker accused the KMT of creating tension by holding yesterday’s meeting. He said the ruling and opposition parties had not reached a consensus on the bill nor had the executive branch sent all of the related bills to the legislature.
“I wonder whether President Ma is using this bill to create the image that his administration is committed to reform before the upcoming high-level cross-strait talks,” he said.
Ker said his caucus was not against government reform, but would like to see the committee amend the Organic Standard Act of Central Government Agencies (中央行政機關組織基準法) first before moving on to the Organic Act of the Executive Yuan.
Ker also criticized Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (RDEC) Minister Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) — who is in charge of the government reorganization program — for being lackadaisical and disrespectful to DPP lawmakers. He said Jiang had hardly visited the caucus to explain the bill.
Furthermore, the minutes of the public hearing held last week on the bill were not available ahead of yesterday’s meeting, he said.
Another DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yee (李俊毅) said the RDEC was being provocative because it had just placed a poster promoting the bill at the caucus office rather than communicating directly with the caucus.
Pan defended Jiang and said the public hearing was held as the DPP requested but no DPP lawmakers attended the event. She also dismissed Ker’s accusation that the legislature was acting as Ma’s pawn.
While Pan said the five related bills are equally important, it would make more sense to review amendments to the Organic Act of the Executive Yuan first. KMT Legislator Lin Yi-shih (林益世) agreed, saying that only by beginning the review process could the committee hear different opinions.
KMT Legislator Wu Ching-chih (吳清池), however, said it was “inappropriate” for the committee to steamroll the bill through, saying many differences needed to be ironed out.
Wu urged the RDEC to produce the minutes of the public hearing and called for mutual respect, saying that caucus leaders should negotiate the controversial bill.
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