Under heavy social pressure, the Legislative Yuan passed the constitutional amendment bill on legislative reform in the extra session on Monday. Starting in 2008, the nation will adopt a "single-member district, two-vote system" for legislative elections, and current number of seats in the legislature will be cut from the current 225 to 113.
Despite several hurdles, including the readjustment of electoral constituencies, the result was by no means a watershed in the shaping of the nation's future political landscape or a test of the maturation of Taiwan's political culture.
In theory, the new electoral system is beneficial to larger parties because it creates a "winner-takes-all" effect. Nevertheless, it is too early to say whether it would produce a regular two-party system, because more efforts will have to be made in the follow-up constitutional re-engineering and constituency re-structuring. But it opens a window of opportunity to purify and improve the legislature.
For decades, Taiwan's unique single non-transferable vote system has been a political tumor to the country's democratic pro-cess. It not only breeds the growth of "black gold" politics but also encourages an unhealthy legislative culture. The constant antics and shameless grandstanding have made the Legislative Yuan little more than a political circus full of clowns. The media plays a supplementary role in encouraging such misconduct. Most media reports have played up the antagonism between the ruling and opposition parties. To attract more of the spotlight, it is natural for legislators to seek any kind of media exposure, regardless of the kind of exposure they attract.
These elements contribute to a lack of discipline and efficiency in the Legislative Yuan. Several public opinion polls indicated that people think the legislature is a major source of political instability in this country. Further, the majority of the public also supported the reduction of seats in that arm of government.
Now that legislative revisions have taken place and the electoral system has been reformed, the aim is to expand each legislator's legitimacy. But institutional reform is one thing; how to mold the nation into a mature political culture is another. It constitutes an even more urgent task for the state of politics in this country.
To help make the legislature more transparent, a legitimate and fair civil association composed of experts, academics, media and opinion leaders must be formed to monitor legislators' performance. The media should also refrain from sensationalizing press conferences called by certain legislators who exploit the media or to try to excuse themselves from political wrongdoing. The local press should weigh on its own in the commercial interests and the responsibility to educate the public on what is politically right and wrong.
Finally, as the electorate has become more opinionated and aware, distrust of politicians, parties, and all institutions has become more profound. This underlying shift in the elector-ate's mood will constitute a new demand for public represen-tation. The right to hold referendums should be preserved as a supplementary tool in times of legislative inefficiency.
Further electoral reform is a must. A partisan agreement on the constitutional amendment on electoral rules should be treated as a great step forward for Taiwan's democracy, rather than just a political agreement of partisan interests. Reform-minded political leaders with broad visions for the nation's political development should step out and take the lead, regardless of what the reforms may in turn hurt them in the short term or what party they are affiliated with.
Liu Kuan-teh is a political commentator based in Taipei.
In their recent op-ed “Trump Should Rein In Taiwan” in Foreign Policy magazine, Christopher Chivvis and Stephen Wertheim argued that the US should pressure President William Lai (賴清德) to “tone it down” to de-escalate tensions in the Taiwan Strait — as if Taiwan’s words are more of a threat to peace than Beijing’s actions. It is an old argument dressed up in new concern: that Washington must rein in Taipei to avoid war. However, this narrative gets it backward. Taiwan is not the problem; China is. Calls for a so-called “grand bargain” with Beijing — where the US pressures Taiwan into concessions
The term “assassin’s mace” originates from Chinese folklore, describing a concealed weapon used by a weaker hero to defeat a stronger adversary with an unexpected strike. In more general military parlance, the concept refers to an asymmetric capability that targets a critical vulnerability of an adversary. China has found its modern equivalent of the assassin’s mace with its high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) weapons, which are nuclear warheads detonated at a high altitude, emitting intense electromagnetic radiation capable of disabling and destroying electronics. An assassin’s mace weapon possesses two essential characteristics: strategic surprise and the ability to neutralize a core dependency.
Chinese President and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Xi Jinping (習近平) said in a politburo speech late last month that his party must protect the “bottom line” to prevent systemic threats. The tone of his address was grave, revealing deep anxieties about China’s current state of affairs. Essentially, what he worries most about is systemic threats to China’s normal development as a country. The US-China trade war has turned white hot: China’s export orders have plummeted, Chinese firms and enterprises are shutting up shop, and local debt risks are mounting daily, causing China’s economy to flag externally and hemorrhage internally. China’s
During the “426 rally” organized by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party under the slogan “fight green communism, resist dictatorship,” leaders from the two opposition parties framed it as a battle against an allegedly authoritarian administration led by President William Lai (賴清德). While criticism of the government can be a healthy expression of a vibrant, pluralistic society, and protests are quite common in Taiwan, the discourse of the 426 rally nonetheless betrayed troubling signs of collective amnesia. Specifically, the KMT, which imposed 38 years of martial law in Taiwan from 1949 to 1987, has never fully faced its
RSS