KMT lawmaker calls for Lai to hold cross-party talks on controversial bills

Taipei, May 26 (CNA) A Kuomintang (KMT) lawmaker suggested Sunday that President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) convene a national affairs advisory meeting that would include opposition leaders, in a bid to help resolve the legislative and public controversy over a series of reform bills.

If Lai decides to convene such a meeting, he should invite KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) and Taiwan People's Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), said Hsu Yu-chen (許宇甄), deputy secretary-general of the KMT legislative caucus.

Hsu made the suggestion after Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) called for cross-party discussions in the Legislature to establish game rules for the passage of bills.

Lawmakers of the ruling and opposition parties have been at loggerheads for the past 10 days over a series of legislative reform bills that were put forth by the opposition parties to expand the Legislature's power of oversight with regard to the president and the executive branch of the government.

In response to CNA questions on Sunday, Hsu noted that while Taiwanese voters in January gave the DPP a record third term by electing Lai as president, they opted not to return the DPP to its absolute majority in the 113-seat Legislature.

That decision gave the KMT and the TPP the role of supervising the ruling party, Hsu said, referring to the two opposition parties' combined 60 seats in the Legislature.

The KMT holds 52 seats, the TPP eight, and the DPP 51, while two independent legislators are ideologically aligned with the KMT.

Against that backdrop, the KMT and the TPP put forward their versions of the legislative reform bills on government oversight, Hsu said.

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Contrary to the DPP's claims, there were no underhand operations to circumvent the normal deliberation and review process of the bills, Hsu said, adding that the real problem is that the DPP does not want to be supervised.

When the DPP was in the opposition, it had proposed reform bills that were much stiffer than those currently under review, she said. Now that the DPP has been in power for so many years, it does not want supervisory reforms, she said.

Most of reform bills in the series have already passed the first and second readings in the Legislature and have been put forth for a third reading, which must be held in a plenary session.

During the earlier process, the versions of the bills proposed by the KMT and the TPP were combined, while the DPP made some input into the revisions.

Opposition lawmakers have accused the DPP legislators of dragging out the process by filing various motions and proposing many revisions to the reform bills.

Furthermore, the DPP has mobilized people to protest on the streets against the reform bills proposed by the KMT and TPP, which indicates that the DPP is already eyeing the next elections, Hsu said.

She was referring to the huge protests around the Legislative Yuan in Taipei on Friday when thousands of demonstrators gathered to call for the withdrawal of the legislative reform bills put forth by the KMT and TPP and to demand greater transparency in the review process.