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PAN-BLUE TO CONSIDER ARMS BILL IF DEFENSE SPENDING UPPED TO 3% OF GDP

ROC Central News Agency

2005-12-17 16:46:20

    Taipei, Dec. 17 (CNA) The opposition "pan-blue alliance" of the Kuomintang (KMT) and People First Party (PFP) will consider allowing debate on the administration's major arms purchase bill at the legislature if the administration immediately boosts defense spending to 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) , a senior KMT official said Saturday.

    Tseng Yung-chuan, executive director of the KMT's Central Policy Committee and party whip at the legislature, said that of the three major items in the arms procurement package, the anti-missile batteries have already been vetoed in a referendum, so the KMT will only consider approving the purchase of the eight conventional submarines and 12 P-3C Orion submarine-hunting aircraft, and only through the defense ministry's regular annual budget. "The bill must be legal and reasonable, and not a single cent should be wasted," he said.

    Sun Ta-chien, deputy convener of the PFP's legislative caucus, agreed that his party will consider allowing the bill to be debated if the administration agrees to list the funding for the purchase of the submarines and anti-submarine aircraft in the ministry's regular annual budget instead of in a special budget.

    Sun said the government must also settle the legal issue surrounding the referendum held in conjunction with the presidential vote in 2004, a referendum participated in by less than 50 percent of the eligible voters concerning the nation's anti-missile capability.

    The two "pan-blue alliance" lawmakers were responding to President Chen Shui-bian's appeal to the legislature to state clearly what should be done to break the deadlock over the government's NT$480 billion proposal to buy the three defense items from the United States.

    Warning that China has been rapidly boosting its military might and that Taiwan must defend its freedom and democracy from being encroached upon by "authoritarian China, " Chen stressed that it's imperative for the legislature to debate issues concerning national security and cross-Taiwan Strait peace and to pass the arms purchase bill before the current legislative session ends in late January.

    The president claimed that he was not being "selfish or partisan" in making the appeal, as the purchase plan had been mapped out before 2000, when the KMT was still the ruling party, and delivery of all three items would not begin until after 2008, when he is due to step down. According to the Constitution, a president cannot serve more than two terms.

    He also announced that defense spending will be increased to 3 percent of the nation's GDP by 2008 as part of the government's efforts to boost Taiwan's defense capability.

    Tseng said the "pan-blue alliance" has neither opposed nor boycotted a proposal to purchase military weapons for truly defensive purposes, adding that what the alliance is against is "senseless use of money like a free-spending prodigal son." "We have been blocking an unreasonable spending proposal so that the executive branch does not waste the tax payers' hard-earned money," Tseng said.

    If recent media reports are correct that both the government and the United States are willing to see the stalemate overcome by means of regular budgets, then the bill will no longer be a "special budget" bill and the legislature's Procedures Committee needs no longer block it, he said.

    Rather, it will have to deal with a regular budget bill that contains weapons procurement in the defense ministry's budget, he said.

    He called on the government to at once raise defense spending from the current 2.4 percent of GDP to 3 percent of GDP in order to cover the cost of financing the weapons purchases through the defense ministry's regular annual budget. He said he made the call because the year 2008 is quite far off and "uncertainty abounds" from now till that time.

    As to the purchase of Patriot III anti-missile batteries, he said there is no reason to list this item in the arms procurement bill since it was voted down in the 2004 referendum. "The KMT caucus has crossed it out from the regular budget," he said.

    Tseng assured that his party and the PFP will remain united when it comes to reviewing the arms purchase bill at the Legislative Yuan.

(By S.C. Chang)

ENDITEM/Li