Monday, September 03, 2012

DPP legislators earn top ranking in watchdog’s report

By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators notched up top rankings in all eight committees in the first session of the eighth legislature, a congress watchdog report released yesterday said.

The DPP, which has 40 seats in the 113-seat legislature, dominated the latest performance scorecard conducted by the Citizen Congress Watch (CCW), with 16 lawmakers in the top 24 spots — the top three in each of the eight committees.

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), which controls a majority with 64 seats, only placed five legislators in the ranking.

“It’s a pity that the KMT decided to boycott the review, but we were still able to gather sufficient information to work out the final ranking,” CCW executive director Chang Hung-lin (張宏林) told a press conference.

The review consists of three categories of basic performance, which includes lawmakers’ attendance records and the number of their interpellations and proposals, citizen reviews via the Internet video on-demand system and weighted considerations.

The KMT questioned the methodology and neutrality of the review and boycotted the report by not providing information and documents for evaluation.

Six of the DPP’s eight lawmakers who earned top rankings are newly elected: Pasuya Yao (姚文智) of the Internal Administration Committee, Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) of the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, Wu Ping-jui (吳秉叡) of the Finance Committee, Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) of the Education and Culture Committee, Lee Kun-tse (李昆澤) of the Transportation Committee and Yu Mei-nu (尤美女) of the Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee.

Additionally, Liu Chien-kuo (劉建國) earned a top ranking in the Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee, while Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) finished first in the Economics Committee.

The DPP won the top three spots in two committees, including Yao, Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) and Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) in the Internal Administration Committee and Lee, Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) and Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) in the Transportation Committee.

Seventeen lawmakers were placed on a watch list for their poor performance. All of them are members of the KMT, Non-Partisan Solidarity Union or independents.

CCW statistics showed an overall attendance record for the first session of 97 percent, with each lawmaker making an average of 24.2 proposals, although only 11 laws cleared the legislature.