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HOW U.S. ARMS PACKAGE IS FUNDED MAY BE IMMATERIAL: KMT CHAIRMAN

ROC Central News Agency

2005-12-18 15:23:52

    Taipei, Dec. 18 (CNA) Changing the funding method for the administration's U.S. arms procurement bill from a special military budget to a regular Ministry of National Defense budget will not necessarily make the package more acceptable to the opposition- controlled legislature, opposition Kuomintang (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou said Sunday.

    The opposition "pan-blue alliance" legislative caucuses will accept an arms procurement bill only when they consider it to have been drafted after professional assessments and when it genuinely meets Taiwan's defense needs, Ma said.

    Ma said that the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has "indulged" itself in using the "special budget" plan, a practice that apparently runs counter to the spirit of the nation's special budget law and that was the main reason why the opposition "pan-blue alliance" lawmakers have continued to block the bill.

    Ma, however, pointed out that even if the Executive Yuan changes the funding for the three weapon systems -- six Patriot III anti-missile batteries, eight conventional submarines and 12 P-3C Orion submarine-hunting aircraft -- regardless of whether the arms procurement is funded by an annual budget or by a special budget, the DPP government is still not coming to grips with the reason that the opposition is against the bill.

    Ma made the remarks in response to President Chen Shui-bian's appeal the day before 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.

    Ma said that the opposition parties have never objected to arms procurement, but the "pan-blue alliance" is opposed to "cash-for-friendship" purchase plans.

    Under this mentality, Ma said, the country should jointly review what weapon systems are truly needed to beef up Taiwan's defense. Should such a purchase only be confined to those three items as the administration has proposed? Or other weapon systems should also be considered?

    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 Saturday 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. "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 has no further cause to block it," he said.

(By Deborah Kuo)

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