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NO KMT-PFP AGREEMENT ON ARMS PURCHASE BILL IN LEGISLATURE

ROC Central News Agency

2005-09-07 20:48:45

    Taipei, Sept. 7 (CNA) The chairmen of the nation's two largest opposition parties failed to adopt a joint legislative strategy on how to handle the government's special budget bill for buying advanced weapons from the United States Wednesday.

    Kuomintang (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong did not reach a consensus on whether to put the bill on the legislative agenda, saying their legislative causes will keep on discussing a joint strategy.

    PFP Secretary-General Chin Chin-sheng said the bill should not be put through the legislature's Procedure Committee because the government's referendum on arms purchases failed, and "people's direct opinion should not be vetoed by their indirect opinion [as expressed in the legislature]."

    The KMT and PFP agreed that the country must maintain its defence capability, "but the government cannot veto the referendum results with mere slogans," Chin said.

    His KMT counterpart, Chan Chun-po, said the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) should actively seek to resolve the issue of tying the arms purchase referendum to the presidential election of 2004.

    Wang Jin-pyng, president of the Legislative Yuan, has suggested that the arms procurement bill be put on the legislative agenda so lawmakers can debate all aspects of the issue.

    Ma and Soong also failed to hammer out a joint strategy on the government's request for a NT$80 billion special budget for flood control, agreeing that their legislative caucuses will jointly draft a detailed flood-fighting plan to replace the government's "sloppy" proposal.

    The two leaders briefly touched on coordinating efforts to win more city and county magistrate seats in the year-end elections, agreeing on such principles as respecting the majority view and keeping good faith toward each other.

    How to cooperate in this regard will be discussed by the two parties' legislative caucuses, Chan said. The two parties realize that unity will benefit both parties whereas disunity will harm them, Chin said.

    Emerging from his meeting with Ma, Soong said both of them hope to form a "strong monitoring team" in the legislature to keep the government from falling further apart, as they realize that if the opposition parties cannot check and balance the government, they will have difficulty facing the public.

(By S.C. Chang)

ENDITEM/mw