The real problem with the delay in the Services Pact isn’t the Sunflowers. They just make a convenient whipping boy. The real problem is that the KMT legislators don’t want to pass it, and can’t be made to.
By Michael Turton, The View of Taiwan
Published with permission, read the original here…
KMT Caucus Whip resigns over Control Yuan vote, scribes the Taipei Times. An interesting signal of what’s going on inside the KMT…
“Lin and the KMT caucus blamed outgoing Control Yuan President Wang Chien-shien (王建煊) for the “surprising outcome” on Tuesday night, after it became clear that KMT lawmakers had failed to vote in line with the party’s wishes.“
“Not only was incoming Control Yuan president Chang Po-ya’s (張博雅) nomination confirmed by only a hair’s breadth, 11 of the 27 candidates for Control Yuan members were voted down by the legislature, despite Ma’s insistence on a “complete passage that leaves no one behind.” “
The President, who is the Party Chairman, had insisted to his legislators that everyone pass. The KMT rejected the bulk of Control Yuan nominees. The President’s clout in his own party does not appear great enough to get everyone to hold their nose and vote his way on Control Yuan officials. Ma is a lame duck in his own party.
Recall that the trigger for the occupation of the legislature was the KMT’s decision to cut off the debate before it began, declare it completed, and then declare that the Services Pact had passed review and was now law — without a vote in the legislature. It seems clear that the KMT lacks the power to compel its legislators to line up behind that dog of a service pact, if it can’t even get them to vote for a routine bit of favor-swapping corruption like the Control Yuan nominees.
Hence the real problem with the delay in the Services Pact isn’t the Sunflowers. They just make a convenient whipping boy. The real problem is that the KMT legislators don’t want to pass it, and can’t be made to.
I suspect they will just have to wait until after the election in November to move on the Services Pact.
