Civic groups yesterday urged the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to work with them to create a platform to monitor the progress and content of cross-strait agreements. While the DPP immediately agreed, the KMT declined to meet with group members.
Worried that a proposal by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) to create a bipartisan body in the legislature to monitor the progress and content of cross-strait exchanges and agreements may not be realized, several civic groups yesterday met with the DPP caucus, hoping to create a partially non-governmental platform in which the groups could participate.
Those who took part in the meeting included representatives from Citizens Congress Watch (CCW), the National Association for the Promotion of Community Universities (NAPCU), the Union of Taiwanese Teachers, the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, the Taiwan Grassroots Alliance for peace and the National Alliance of Parents’ Organizations.
“We’re not against cross-strait exchanges, we just think that any cross-strait exchanges should be done in a transparent way under the supervision of the legislature and the public,” said Ho Tsung-hsun (何宗勳) of CCW during a meeting with DPP caucus whip Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲).
“Beside having a monitoring body in the legislature as Wang proposed last year — and we’ve not heard anything about that since — I think it’s also important to create a platform in which non-governmental organizations can also partake,” Ho said, adding that when the public started demanding supervision on cross-strait exchanges, Wang would feel the pressure and that could help accelerate legislative supervision on cross-strait issues.
NAPCU secretary-general Kao Ju-ping (高茹萍), on the other hand, suggested that the DPP could organize public hearings and other events to directly interact with the public and to put pressure on the government.
“President Ma Ying-jeou [馬英九] said he would like an economic cooperation framework agreement to be signed with China this year, but so far we still don’t know the details,” Kao said. “It’s really worrying.”
“If nothing else works, then maybe a massive demonstration demanding transparency on cross-strait exchanges should be held,” Ho said.
In response, Huang said he agreed with everything that the representatives said and added that besides public hearings, DPP lawmakers would also appeal to the public in their respective constituencies and through the media to make the opposition’s voice heard.
The activists, however, urged the DPP caucus to come up with a more concrete plan before the end of this month.
“We’ll wait to see what the DPP caucus does next,” Ho said after the meeting.
The groups also wanted to meet with KMT legislators. The KMT caucus declined, however, saying it was busy with the legislative committee conveners election.
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