The heads of Taiwan's five government branches yesterday reached a consensus in three areas, including the establishment of a communications platform to resolve disagreements, after attending a meeting led by President William Lai (賴清德).
Speaking after the meeting, Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) said the five branch heads agreed to set up a platform to improve communications and cooperation to enable them to advance public policies and reinforce Taiwan's democracy and freedom.
Photo: CNA
They also agreed that the five branches of government — the Executive Yuan, Legislative Yuan, Judicial Yuan, Examination Yuan and Control Yuan — all have their own duties and checks and balances, but still need to respect each other.
The five branch heads also believed that competition among political parties is allowed, but that the nation cannot be sacrificed by their competition, as Taiwan is faced with a fast-changing world.
They felt that the five branches needed to unite, in particular on national defense and diplomatic issues by prioritizing national security, Pan said.
The meeting was called by Lai to discuss issues related to Taiwan and the severe political and economic challenges it faces at home and abroad.
More specifically, it was focused on the stand-off between Lai's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government and the Legislative Yuan, in which the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People's Party (TPP) have teamed up to pass measures strongly opposed by the DPP.
Most recently, the two sides have battled over the central government's budget.
The KMT and TPP have cut or froze some of the DPP's budget request, but still allowed the overall budget to grow by about 3 percent compared with last year.
However, the DPP has argued that the cuts would make it hard for it to carry out its policies.
After the meeting, Pan said national security, economic development and caring for the people cannot be compromised and represent the responsibilities and goals that the ruling and opposition parties should pursue together.
Both the ruling and opposition parties should put people in the country first, and therefore the five branches should work together to boost the local economy and strengthen industrial development to protect public welfare, he said.
How those principles would lead to conciliation between the different sides was unclear, given that Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) is the only head of the five branches aligned with the opposition, and his post does not involve policymaking.
The confrontation in the Legislative Yuan has led to a massive campaign initiated by DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) to recall KMT lawmakers, and the KMT decided to retaliate.
After the meeting, Han hoped Lai would urge the ruling and opposition camps to stop their recall campaigns.
He also called on the Cabinet not to ask the Legislative Yuan to vote a second time on the general budget plan once it is submitted to the government, but said the legislature was willing to hold cross-party negotiations to find a solution to parts of the budget the Executive Yuan has claimed it would have trouble implementing.
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