Opposition lawmakers grill SEF chair
Written by Writer on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008
Opposition lawmakers grill SEF chair
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers fired a broadside yesterday at P.K. Chiang, chairman of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), demanding that he be held in contempt of the Legislative Yuan.
No resolution was proposed to discipline Chiang, whom DPP lawmakers said refused to make a report on Oct. 30 on four agreements he was expected to sign with his Chinese counterpart Chen Yunlin in Taipei on Nov. 6.
Chen, chairman of the Association for Relations across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS), arrived on Nov. 3 and inked the agreements on shortened air routes, direct maritime shipping, better mail service and food safety. He and his 60-member delegation left for Beijing on Nov. 7.
Lawmaker Ker Chien-ming, DPP legislative caucus whip, fired the first shot at a joint meeting of four Legislative Yuan committees in the morning. “If Chiang had made the report on Oct. 30,” Ker said, “the confrontation over the Chiang-Chen meeting in Taipei wouldn’t have been that serious.”
DPP supporters took to the streets to protest the ARATS chairman’s visit and clashed with riot police while he and his delegation stayed in Taipei. There was some bloodshed.
Trong Chai, a veteran DPP lawmaker, joined Ker in condemning Chiang. They both demanded the SEF chairman be held in contempt of the nation’s highest legislative organ.
In reply, Chiang said he was not officially invited to make the report.
Chiang said he consulted with Wang Jin-pyng, president of the Legislative Yuan, on the DPP call for his report. They decided it was better for Kao Koong-lian, SEF vice chairman and secretary-general, to report on Chiang’s behalf.
“Since Kao, not I, actually negotiated the four agreements, it was much better that he make the report on the Legislative Yuan floor,” Chiang told his interpellators. Lee Chia-chin, convener of the Legislative Yuan interior committee who presided over the joint meeting, vouchsafed that Chiang wasn’t officially invited to report on the accords to be signed to further improve relations between Taiwan and China.
But the DPP lawmakers boycotted the meeting after hearing Chiang’s explanation on grounds he had to be held in contempt of the Legislative Yuan for refusal to make the report.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 9:38 am TWN, The China Post news staff
