News Release

News Release

KMT Cultural and Communications Committee

January 22, 2010

The KMT made public the videotape of the January 22^nd Legislative Yuan session when the amendment bill to the Local Government Act was put to a vote.  The videotape showed that the DPP deliberately ruptured the consultations between the ruling and opposition parties by means of occupying the podium in order to block the passage of the bill and the implementation of crucial government policy.  The DPP was a political party that opposed for the sake of objection.  KMT spokeswoman Chen Shu-jung said that the purpose of passing the amendment to the Local Government Act was to push for reform, implement government policies effectively, and make the country more competitive.  If the amendment bill to the Local Government Act had failed to pass there would not be adequate time to redraw the districts for the new City Councils of the new Special Municipalities, rendering year-end mayoral elections of special municipalities impossible.  And the reform of government would fail with grave consequences.  The KMT believed that the Local Government Act as amended met the expectations of the public.

Chen added that while many bills piled up in the Legislative Yuan the DPP deliberately ruptured consultations and delayed the passage of many bills in order to prevent the government from implementing various important policies.  The DPP declared in the Legislative Yuan that if the Local Government Act should be passed, it would be over their dead bodies.  The DPP opposed the passage of the bills by resorting to violence, occupying the podium, and creating conflicts and confrontations; in other words, the DPP used all possible means.  As a matter of fact, DPP Tainan County executive Su Huan-chih was the first to propose that chiefs of townships and rural townships, and representatives of townships and rural townships could receive a monthly research allowance of NT$ 45,000.  DPP Tainan City Mayor Hsu Tain-tsair also agreed that district counselors should receive remuneration.  However, the DPP accused the KMT of engaging in electioneering over turf chiefs out of self-interest.  The KMT believed that the public had seen that the DPP took all benefits and was a political party that opposed things for the sake of objection.

Stephen Chen, convener of the National Security Division at the National Policy Foundation (a KMT think tank), said in the Central Standing Committee meeting a couple of days ago that Taiwan had emulated democracy of the West, but failed to learn how to maintain order on the floor of the Legislature.  Chen added that the US had set up a sergeant-at-arms in both the House of Representative and the Senate, and the sergeant-at-arms took instructions from the Speaker or the President of the Senate so as to maintain order in Congress.  The sergeant-of-arms would decide whether to call the police to come onto the floor to maintain order.  There was no need for the Speaker or the President of the Senate himself to call the police.  With regard to maintaining order in Congress, Chen hoped that the Legislative Yuan would consider during the recess whether to enact a bill for maintaining order in the Legislative Yuan or to establish a post similar to a sergeant-at-arms.

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According to press reports on Jan. 24, President Ma Ying-jeou had a meeting over tea with KMT legislators on Jan. 23 and stated that the Central Standing Committee meeting was discussing whether the Legislative Yuan should set up a post of sergeants-at-arms in order to maintain order.  At this moment, there were no plans to amend the law to set up the post sergeants-at-arms in the Legislative Yuan.

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