A week is a long time in politics. In Taiwan, half a week is enough for a law to be passed, one of the parties that passed the law to then demand that law be overturned, and then for a mass boycott by the other parties.
Friday:
The Legislative Yuan [with DPP support] passed a law governing the operation of the National Assembly yesterday that requires a three-quarter majority vote for the passage of any constitutional amendments.
The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday decided to overturn legislation adopted on Friday requiring approval from at least three fourths of the National Assembly (NA) members to pass any constitutional amendment.
At the request of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Wang Jin-pyng, president of the Legislative Yuan, called an interparty meeting for consultation, which was boycotted by all other parties.
This is basically last minute nerves about the Constitutional reform which is expected to be passed following last weeks National Assembly elections. In principal, 83% of the elected NA members should support the reform – comfortably over the 75% threshold mandated in last Friday’s law; however, the worry is that some DPP/KMT members will vote against party policy. Given that many of the members will be voting themselves out of a job in 3 years time (due to the proposed halving in size of the legislature), this is a serious worry. However, the current ‘headless chicken’ behaviour of the DPP is no more likely to help things than the sulky “I’m not talking to you” attitude of the KMT.
Update Tuesday:
A slanging match in the Legislature as the DPP try to force a review of the law. It gets voted down (twice) – but not before a few DPP legislators have insulted other DPP members and the premier. I’m looking forward to the threat of a constitutional ruling on the law next …
It looks like another slip-up by the DPP. For a party that should be riding the waves of their recent victory, it seems that they are struggling to keep afloat. There definitely has to be some stronger leadership take hold in this party — soon!!