On August 27 the Speaker of the Legislative Yuan announced the passage of a bill to amend Article One, Article Two, Article Four, Article Five, Article Eight and Article Twelve of the Additional Articles to the Constitution. Six months from that date, an amendment bill will be delivered to the National Assembly convened for the purpose for its approval, completing the historical re-engineering and renovation of the Constitution, and ending the long-standing political and constitutional chaos and the confusion over national identity of Taiwan over the past four years.
The major amendments to the six articles of the Constitution touch upon the delineation of the state's territory and the name of the country, and install a new the system of elections, including that of the president and vice president and their scope of authorities. The amendments also reduce the number of Legislative Yuan members to 113, and address these legislative representatives' election and duties as well as the structure of the legislature.
ILLUSTRATION: MOUNTAIN PEOPLE
The appointment of grand justices, the length of their tenure, and the organization of the Council of Grand Justices, as well as the right to hold referendums are also covered by the amendment bill. According to the amendment to Article One of the Additional Articles of the Constitution passed by the first extraordinary session during the fifth legislative session of the Fifth Legislative Yuan, the state's name is "the free area of the Republic of China," and the state's territory includes Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu. The amendment bill gives Taiwan new visions and horizons, affirming that Taiwan is a country existing independently from China.
Identification and definition of Taiwan's sovereignty
During Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) President Chen Shu-bian's (陳水扁) first term, Taiwan fell into political chaos because Chen heads a minority government holding only a legislative minority. The alliance of the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party (PFP) overpowered the ruling DPP in the Legislative Yuan, although the latter is actually the biggest party in the legislature. Backed by its upper hand in the legislature, the pan-blue opposition crippled President Chen's policy implementation and kept him from engaging in constitutional and political reforms, supporting only his economic reforms. In March 2004, President Chen was re-elected. While the DPP remained a minority government, President Chen has worked hard in the areas of foreign affairs, highlighting Taiwan's sovereign status and taking measures to counter the Chinese diplomatic blockade in the international community. Overwhelmed by jealousy and hatred, the opposition KMT lost its head, and responded with mudslinging, which in turn generated endless bickering. The KMT was unable to leave behind the pain and humiliation of its presidential election defeat.
The standoff between Chen and the pan-blue opposition has led to social unrest and political confusion. To clear up this muddy situation, former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) launched a campaign in 2003 to awaken Taiwanese consciousness among the people, cumulating in the 228 Hand-in-Hand Rally in which more than a million people took part. The DPP became the biggest party in the Legislative Yuan as a result of the legislative election near the end of 2003. These two major trends changed the power dynamics between the country's parties, and ensured the re-election of President Chen in March. As a result of the growth of nativized consciousness, and feelings of resentment toward China's high-handed tactics against the country, a majority of the public began to lean toward the pan-green camp. Voters with Taiwanese consciousness began to feel indifferent toward the KMT. As a result, in this year's March 20 presidential election, Chen received more than fifty percent of the votes.
Realizing that losing popular support will impact its performance in the legislative elections in December, and could cost the pan-blues their legislative majority, members of the KMT began to question the conduct and the ability of KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and his vice presidential running mate, PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) in the 2004 presidential election. Power struggles, infighting and divisions began to surface within the KMT. The legislative caucus of the KMT also began to realize the importance of regaining public support -- especially from moderate voters. The outcome of the December legislative elections hinges on whether voters see the KMT as a nativized political party. Therefore, when the DPP presented the rewriting of the Constitution and the right to hold referendums as its campaign platform for the year-end legislative elections, all four of Taiwan's political parties gave the DPP active support. That led to the passage of the bill to amend the Constitution by 197 votes -- which was almost unanimous support. A new era has begun for the nation's democracy.
Name and territory of the country of Taiwan
The newly amended Article One defines the name and territory of Taiwan. The former is "the free area of the Republic of China." The state territory is Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu. For the first time, the pan-greens and pan-blues have reached a consensus on national identity. In the Legislative Yuan, all four parties respectively presented their versions of the bill, and virtually all agreed to use the name "the free area of Republic of China," and that the territory of the country includes the island of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu. The KMT had earlier openly issued a statement saying that the name Republic of China is a promise of peace and democracy for the country, and pragmatically accepting the name "Republic of China ? Taiwan." By doing so, the KMT met public expectations and has possibly salvaged many votes. At the same time, the name eases the concern of the international community about Taiwan changing the cross-strait status quo.
Premier Yu Shyi-kun's statement regarding the name of Taiwan being "Taiwan, ROC" during his transit in New York while returning from Central America appears to correspond with Lee's 1999 discourse on a "special state-to-state" relationship between the two sides of the Strait and Chen's "one country on each side [of the Strait]" statementin 2002. This has further influenced the KMT, making the KMT accept that Taiwan is not a part of China. In the minds of the nation's people, Taiwan is already an independent and sovereign country. The KMT has conceded and accepted this fact, which is why it submitted to the bill to change the Constitution's definition of the country's territory and to change the country's name.
According to the KMT's discourse, the ROC and Taiwan are one democratic and peaceful political entity, which is distinguishable from the "one country (ie, China), two systems" proposed by China. Under the name and territory of "ROC, Taiwan," the DPP, KMT, PFP and Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) have reached consensus. This confirms even more strongly that the independent existence of Taiwan's sovereignty outside of the PRC has already been decided by popular will in Taiwan.
Additional changes
The amendment to Article Two states that the president and vice president are to be popularly elected by all the populace of the "free area." In 1996, Lee and Lien were elected president and vice president of the country. It was the first time that a president and vice president had been popularly elected in Taiwn. Since 2003 the law had been amended to clarify that the so-called "free area" is Taiwan, so it is clear that the president and vice president are elected by the people of Taiwan.
In the amendment to Article Four of the additional articles, the organization and function of the Legislative Yuan, as well as the legislative electoral system, now also correspond with the new definition of territory under the Constitution. The territory under the control of the "free area of the Republic of China" includes the island of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu. The territory of the country has been clearly delineated, jettisoning the long-troublesome and ambiguous "one China" concept. The DPP, KMT, PFP and TSU, which represent the country's popular will, have jointly dissolved the "one China" myth. Without changing the status quo, they rationally conceded that ROC, Taiwan is an independent country. The legislature of this country consists of 113 members with a four-year term. Out of these 113, 73 will be elected from the Taiwan region, including six from the aboriginal tribes. Thirty-four will represent districts at large or overseas Taiwanese. Thirty percent of the at-large legislators must be female.
The election of lawmakers from individual districts will be conducted through a "single-district, two-vote" electoral system. This system will usher the nation into two-party democracy and strengthen the popular election of president. The popular will can now more effectively monitor the quality of the legislators and compare the performance of the political parties. The voters will become the biggest check and balance on the legislative power. All political parties must become open and democratic parties in order to survive. Both the DPP's party structure and the Leninist structure of the KMT must undergo further transformation, so that political parties become election machines only and seek to expand their power through serving the voters.
A promising future
While this stage of re-engineering the Constitution will not resolve all the political and structural problems faced by the country, the progress so far has proven that amending the Constitution is a workable process. Future reforms do not necessarily need to be achieved through the more radical measure of adopting a new Constitution -- which would provoke tension with China, and international scepticism and concern.
Since this amendment of the Constitution completes only provisional reforms, in the future there will be a second wave of reform campaign aiming at restructuring the government structure. But, in any event, the incremental and more moderate path of amending the Constitution has become the new trend.
Lee Chang-Kuei (
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