Bills pushed through the Legislative Yuan by the opposition have seriously affected national security, social stability and the nation’s finances, President William Lai (賴清德) said today, urging parties to put national interests first.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) together hold a majority in the Legislative Yuan, and recently blocked the Executive Yuan’s special defense budget and fiscal planning bill from proceeding through the legislative process.
This morning, Lai spoke at the opening of the National Center for High-performance Computing’s cloud computing center in Tainan.
Photo: Liu Wan-chun, Taipei Times
Lai said that, since he took office on May 20 last year, he has been building on the foundation laid by former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to make the country safer, the economy stronger and people more cared for.
Whether facing typhoons, earthquakes or African swine fever, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) and his team have worked tirelessly with local governments on disaster relief and epidemic prevention, he said.
Lai said he hopes the Legislative Yuan can supervise the Executive Yuan while also helping advance legislation that benefits the country and its people.
Unfortunately, under the leadership of the KMT and TPP, the legislature has gone in the opposite direction, he said.
The Act Governing the Legislative Yuan's Power (立法院職權行使法) that passed last year was ruled unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court, but the opposition has not reviewed or corrected it, Lai said.
Instead, they have pushed through amendments to the Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法), effectively freezing the Constitutional Court, he said.
In addition, by sending bills directly to a second reading without public hearings or committee reviews, the opposition has passed a number of bills through unjust procedures, Lai said.
These bills have not only affected national security, social stability and the sustainability of the nation’s finances, but also infringed on people’s right to fairness and left the central government unable to respond to several contingencies, he said.
Facing this serious situation, he decided to convene the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus today to discuss how to deal with it, Lai said.
“There is only one country,” he said.
The KMT and TPP should place national interests first while leading the Legislative Yuan, as the DPP does while ruling the Executive Yuan, Lai said.
Only by working together can the country continue to make progress, he said.
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