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UNPERTURBED BY U.S. WARNINGS, KMT, PFP BLOCK ARMS BILL AGAIN

ROC Central News Agency

2006-10-31 18:01:03

    Taipei, Oct. 31 (CNA) Unperturbed by America's top envoy and a Washington senior official's threat of a "downward spiral" in bilateral relations if the legislature does not approve an arms procurement bill this fall, opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and People First Party (PFP) lawmakers again joined to block the bill from getting on the legislative agenda Tuesday.

    The opposition lawmakers' move was also a slap in the face for KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou, who had made assurances the previous day that his party supported the passage of a NT$6.3 billion (US$189 million) supplementary budget to bolster Taiwan's defense capability -- the same budget bill blocked Tuesday.

    Liao Pen-yen, convener of the Taiwan Solidarity Union's (TSU) legislative caucus, said it was "no news" Ma has lost credibility because his party has been kidnapped by the PFP, which has "threatened" to help the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) pass a bill on the KMT's "ill-gotten" assets if the KMT supports the arms bill.

    Yeh Yi-jin, the DPP's legislative caucus secretary-general, said KMT whips have signed an agreement on putting the arms procurement bill on the legislative agenda "so that an open debate can begin" -- as American Institute in Taiwan's (AIT) Taiwan Office Director Stephen Young urged Oct. 26.

    By blocking the bill from passing the Procedure Committee, the KMT has proven itself to have been "hijacked by the PFP," Yeh said.

    The KMT and PFP did not just stop the NT$6.3 billion budget for "major defense investment programs" from getting on the legislative agenda. They also blocked the withdrawal of the government's initial proposal for a special budget of NT$610.8 billion to buy new weapons from the U.S. -- a proposal the Cabinet has asked to rescind, upon the Legislative Yuan's recommendation.

    Also kept in abeyance in the committee are the president's requests to approve his nominations for Control Yuan members and state public prosecutor general, as well as almost 50 legislative bills or actions the DPP and its "pan-green camp" ally the TSU have proposed for deliberation in a plenary meeting of the legislature.

    At a rare press conference Oct. 26, Young urged Taiwan's legislature to "act now to pass the robust defense budget this fall," estimating the proportion of defense spending to GDP would increase from 2.5 percent this year to 3 percent in 2008, and allow debate on the long-stalled arms procurement package to get under way in the legislature.

    The next day, a senior official in Washington told the CNA that Taiwan will lose U.S. support if it continues to delay its arms procurement plan.

    The official warned that if Taiwan is reluctant to invest in its own defense, the new administration in 2008 would "inherit a mess of a government with U.S.-Taiwan relations on a downward spiral" -- a government "with minimum support from the new U.S. administration."

    Young and the D.C. official's warnings, while seen by the government as "sincere advice coming from a good friend of Taiwan, " triggered vehement responses from some opposition politicians and other critics.

    Kao Chin Su-mei, an aboriginal Non-Partisan Solidarity Union (NPSU) legislator, joined critics in describing Young's comments as "inappropriate remarks, " advising him to "get out of Taiwan and back to the U.S."

    She said she opposes the bill because it would cut deeply into government spending on health and education, at a time when many schoolchildren cannot afford lunch and the education budget has fallen to the bottom among Asia's "four dragons, " and even below Taiwan's 1997 level.

    Adding fuel to the fire, President Chen Shui-bian allegedly commented that anyone opposing the bill should be seen as supporting a new round of "cooperation between the KMT and the Communist Party of China."

    Li Ao, an independent legislator who set off tear gas in a procedure committee meeting last week to obstruct discussion on the arms bill, said Chen's comment alone was enough to ensure the bill would be blocked Tuesday.

    KMT Legislator Su Chi, a former KMT Cabinet official, said the bill has been delayed so long because Taiwan has never held rational debate on the subject.

    For example, he said, Defense Minister Lee Jye has never gone on TV to explain the bill to the public, while other "pan-green" politicians have only tried to accuse rivals, drive a wedge between the KMT and PFP and provoke animosity between supporters of Taiwan independence and ultimate unification with China. "None of these [actions] set a good example in a democracy, " Su said.

(By S.C. Chang)

ENDITEM