A well-known anecdote tells of a scientist who announces that he has invented a solvent capable of dissolving any existing material. A suspicious person then asks the scientist what he uses to store the substance.
In Taiwan, there is an institution that is just as mighty as that solvent. It can pass laws that would destroy the nation's legal foundations -- the Constitution, constitutional politics and human rights -- and there is no mechanism with which to restrict it. It is the legislature. In the past, on the instruction of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), this all-powerful institution froze the Constitution by passing the Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion (動員戡亂時期臨時條款), which became the most potent instrument of Chiang's authoritarian rule.
Although Taiwan is now a democracy, the spirit of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) remains the same. The blue camp, holding a legislative majority, recently helped pass the March 19 Shooting Truth Investigation Special Committee Statute (三一九槍擊事件真相調查特別委員會條例) on the instruction of KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰). Transcending the Constitution and human rights, this statute undermines the principle separating the government into five branches as specified in the Constitution and also tramples on human rights. The law is not meant to pave the way for new authoritarian rule under the KMT, but rather to avenge Lien's defeat in the presidential election.
The statute stipulates that the funds required by the truth committee will come from the Cabinet's budget, and the Cabinet does not have the right to refuse. This is in clear violation of the powers bestowed on the Cabinet in the Budget Law (預算法), including budget allocation, review and execution rights.
The statute also stipulates that truth committee members will be appointed proportionally according to party representation in the legislature -- effectively usurping the authority of the Judicial Yuan. In addition, there are no laws restricting or regulating the committee, which is not required to produce subpoenas, search warrants or other documents required in any legitimate judicial procedure, and thus it all but overturns the Code of Criminal Procedure (刑事訴訟法).
Furthermore, according to this statute, investigations by the committee need not follow normal legal procedures, and individuals, organizations and even government bodies cannot refuse to be investigated, unless they are willing to face fines up to NT$1 million, possible prison sentences and denial of their right to leave the country. This is a gross violation of human rights, pure and simple.
Under the Constitution, the Control Yuan has the right to launch investigations and impeachment proceedings. In response to calls for an investigation into the March 19 shooting, President Chen Shui-bian (
On Tuesday, the blue camp proposed amendments to the statute. But as DPP spokesperson Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said, all the pan-blue camp is trying to do is reduce the extent to which the statute contravenes the Constitution from 85 percent to 75 percent.
There is no guessing how many more constitutional crises Taiwan will have to endure if Lien does not get his way and become president. The KMT's reactionary nature is unwavering. In the year-end legislative elections, the people must decide whether Lien's attack on constitutional government is worthy of their support.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) has caused havoc with his attempts to overturn the democratic and constitutional order in the legislature. If we look at this devolution from the context of a transition to democracy from authoritarianism in a culturally Chinese sense — that of zhonghua (中華) — then we are playing witness to a servile spirit from a millennia-old form of totalitarianism that is intent on damaging the nation’s hard-won democracy. This servile spirit is ingrained in Chinese culture. About a century ago, Chinese satirist and author Lu Xun (魯迅) saw through the servile nature of
In their New York Times bestseller How Democracies Die, Harvard political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt said that democracies today “may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders. Many government efforts to subvert democracy are ‘legal,’ in the sense that they are approved by the legislature or accepted by the courts. They may even be portrayed as efforts to improve democracy — making the judiciary more efficient, combating corruption, or cleaning up the electoral process.” Moreover, the two authors observe that those who denounce such legal threats to democracy are often “dismissed as exaggerating or
Monday was the 37th anniversary of former president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) death. Chiang — a son of former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), who had implemented party-state rule and martial law in Taiwan — has a complicated legacy. Whether one looks at his time in power in a positive or negative light depends very much on who they are, and what their relationship with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is. Although toward the end of his life Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law and steered Taiwan onto the path of democratization, these changes were forced upon him by internal and external pressures,
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus in the Legislative Yuan has made an internal decision to freeze NT$1.8 billion (US$54.7 million) of the indigenous submarine project’s NT$2 billion budget. This means that up to 90 percent of the budget cannot be utilized. It would only be accessible if the legislature agrees to lift the freeze sometime in the future. However, for Taiwan to construct its own submarines, it must rely on foreign support for several key pieces of equipment and technology. These foreign supporters would also be forced to endure significant pressure, infiltration and influence from Beijing. In other words,
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