Ma Cracks Down on the KMT troops

David at jujuflop and I have been speculating on how much control KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou has over the party legislators. Another clue to this question was provided by the recent spat over the size of the legislature.

Constitutional amendments passed last year with the enthusiastic support of the KMT and the DPP slash the number of legislators to 113. This has resulted in sudden temperature drops around the feet of legislators who are finally starting to realize that it wasn't the other guy they were chiseling out of a seat; it was themselves. Meanwhile Ma seems to have successfully quelled the issue:

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman seemed to have persuaded the party's legislators not to continue in their pursuit of further constitutional amendments last night after KMT Legislator Hsu Shu-po (許舒博), the initiator of the original proposal, said he would respect the party's final decision.

Hsu made the remarks after party legislators finished a meeting with KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) last night.

The dispute over constitutional amendments had earlier threatened to cause a split within the ranks of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) as the party chairman and party caucus failed to agree whether a further round of constitutional amendment was necessary.

While Ma was able to get the problem solved, some legislators still expressed disappointment on the issue:

Some KMT legislators, however, continued to stand firm on moving on with constitutional revisions, despite opposition from the party chairman.

"If we don't talk about increasing the number of seats in the legislature in the constitutional amendments, then it doesn't count," said KMT Legislator Hou Tsai-feng (侯彩鳳) yesterday morning after meeting with KMT Secretary-General Chan Chuan-bo (詹春柏) at the party headquarters.

A group of KMT legislators yesterday said that Ma's opposition to amending the Constitution was final, doubting that the chairman would take the opinions of legislators into account on the issue.

In other words, Ma's grip seems to be solidifying, since the complaints of legislators are just noise that he can safely ignore. Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) has been attempting to insert himself into the issue, but does not appear to be a factor. Ma is increasingly successful in marginalizing his rival Wang, although this is not the only issue that has pointed to some serious splits in the KMT recently. The southerners especially seem wont to cause problems, and we have not heard the last grumblings against Ma's authority (The Great Rift Folly: KMT in Crisis?)

The article also hit on two of David's favorite topics, the Control Yuan issue which has caused the government to quietly collapse, and the nature of Taiwan's government.

But the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) legislative caucus doubted Ma's determination to implement the Constitution because the KMT legislators have been blocking the bill reviewing the president's nominations for the Control Yuan at the legislature.

"If Ma really wanted to abide by the Constitution, KMT legislators would not have blocked the review bill from being put onto the legislative agenda," TSU Legislator Mark Ho (何敏豪) said yesterday after the bill had been rejected by the pan-blue camp again.

Meanwhile, back at the farm, everyone is still trying to sex the Taiwan government -- are we a parliamentary system or a presidential system? No one seems to know, but the DPP plans to find out by holding a debate on the topic, and even inviting the KMT:

.... in a bid to find out which system of governmental the country should adopt, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) plans to hold a debate on whether the parliamentary system or presidential system meets Taiwan's needs and will invite KMT members and its chairman to participate.

Who needs mind-altering chemicals when we have Taiwan politics?

[Taiwan] [DPP] [Democracy] [KMT] [Ma Ying-jeou] [PFP]