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TSU URGES PRESIDENT TO TALK WITH OPPOSITION OVER ARMS BILL

ROC Central News Agency

2005-09-07 21:54:57

    Taipei, Sept. 7 (CNA) As the ruling-opposition deadlock over a government proposal to buy key weaponry from the United States looks likely to linger on after a meeting of the leaders of the nation's two largest opposition parties, a minor party called on President Chen Shui-bian Wednesday to personally talk with them in a bid to resolve the impasse.

    Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Secretary-General Cheng Chen-lung said the Kuomintang (KMT) and People First Party (PFP) should not stop the government from acquiring needed weapons simply because the government's 2004 referendum on arms purchases failed to meet its threshold for "validity." "Taiwan is facing a serious problem of a rapidly worsening military imbalance [with China]," Cheng said, adding that the KMT and the PFP must be reasonable when it comes to national security, as they themselves have a chance to become ruling parties and face the same problem in the future.

    He suggested that President Chen meet with KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou, PFP Chairman James Soong, Legislative Yuan President Wang Jin-pyng and other key figures. He urged both sides to compromise and pass the arms purchase bill quickly.

    The meeting could also deal with the president's nomination of Control Yuan members as well as the Cabinet's NT$80 billion special budget request for flood control, two other urgent matters that are stranded in the legislature because of the "pan-blue alliance" opposition, Cheng said.

    The "pan-blue alliance" of the KMT, the PFP and the New Party forms a majority in the legislature over the "pan-green" camp of the DPP and TSU.

    The PFP is adamant about keeping the arms bill from ever being put on the legislative agenda on the grounds that people's direct opinion, as expressed in the referendum, cannot be vetoed by their indirect opinion expressed through the legislature.

    The KMT suggested that President Chen actively seek to resolve the issue of "tying the arms purchases referendum to the presidential election of 2004."

(By S.C. Chang)

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