Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators are bypassing established procedures to push through a package of bills that would expand lawmakers’ powers, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus members said yesterday.
The group of bills — which would make “contempt of the legislature” a punishable offense and require the president to deliver a “state of the nation address” to the body — on Tuesday cleared the Legislative Yuan’s Procedure Committee with support from Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) legislators.
DPP caucus secretary-general Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said the bills did not undergo established procedures for deliberation and review in legislative committees, as well as cross-party negotiations.
Photo: CNA
Wu said that TPP legislators were working with the KMT to fast-track the legislation to pass a third reading tomorrow.
“If, as expected, the KMT and TPP work together to use their majority in the legislature to get the bills past the third reading vote, it would go down in history as the most reprehensible action by legislators,” she said.
The KMT is also pushing through “money pit projects,” spearheaded by KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁), she said.
The bills include more than NT$2 trillion (US$61.9 billion) for major transportation projects on the east coast, which did not undergo a clause-by-clause review at the legislative committee level, as has been standard in the past, she said.
In addition, Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) has not presided over the process in accordance with tradition, Wu said.
She said Han was allowing the bills to skip established procedures to reach a party vote on the floor of the legislature.
“Under Han’s leadership, the legislature has stopped functioning properly, undermining our democratic system,” she said.
In the past, when the KMT held a larger majority under former legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), Wang would insist that legislation undergo several rounds of deliberation, review and cross-party negotiation to respect the rights of opposition parties.
“Han has taken away other parties’ rights to these procedures, and the legislature is on track to become a rubber-stamp body for the KMT,” she said.
Meanwhile, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Mong-kai (洪孟楷) yesterday said that his party had set up a schedule for rotating groups of KMT legislators to watch the entrance to the main legislative chamber for the 24 hours leading up to tomorrow’s vote to prevent DPP lawmakers from interfering.
He said it was necessary to prevent DPP members from entering the chamber beforehand to use delay tactics, such as introducing a series of motions or taking the floor for long speeches to block the bills’ passage.
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