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SNAP VOTE ON ARMS BILL NOT AIMED AT PROVOKING PARTISAN STRIFE: DPP

ROC Central News Agency

2005-12-20 23:32:34

    Taipei, Dec. 20 (CNA) The railroading of two long-stalled bills through the Legislative Yuan's Rules Committee was aimed at spotlighting the opposition "pan-blue alliance's" absurdity and irrationality, not to provoke an interparty stand-off, a ruling party official said Tuesday.

    Legislator Ker Chien-ming, who concurrently serves as the head of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) policy coordination department, was referring to a snap vote engineered by the DPP and its "pan-green" ally -- the Taiwan Solidarity Union -- in the legislature's Rules Committee earlier in the day to put two controversial bills onto the legislative agenda.

    The opposition "pan-blue alliance" of the Kuomintang (KMT) and the People First Party (PFP) , which controls a slim majority in the legislature, has blocked the two bills -- a robust arms procurement package and the review of the president's nominations for Control Yuan members -- from being put on the legislative agenda for more than a year.

    At around noon, when only five "pan-blue alliance" lawmakers were present at the Rules Committee meeting, one of the 12 "pan-green" lawmakers proposed a vote whether to put the two bills on the agenda for discussion at the legislature's plenary session this Friday.

    Committee convener William Lai of the DPP ruled that a vote be held immediately. By 12: 30 p.m., the committee had voted 12-5 to put the two bills on the legislature's agenda, leaving the five "pan-blue alliance" legislators stultified.

    This was the DPP's 42nd attempt to put the NT$480 billion arms purchase budget bill on the legislative agenda. That amount had been cut from NT$610.8 billion. The funds are for the purchase of eight conventional submarines, 12 anti-submarine aircraft and six anti-missile batteries from the United States.

    Dismissing the DPP's move as childish, "pan-blue alliance" lawmakers have vowed to kill the two bills at Friday's plenary session. They said the DPP's surprise blitz would only worsen the hostility between the ruling and opposition camps.

    In response, Ker said the "pan-blue alliance's" stonewalling of the two bills from being rationally screened and debated on the legislative floor is absurd and unconstitutional. "Our move is only aimed at letting the public understand the severity of the matter," Ker added.

(By Sofia Wu)

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