At the risk of being sued by some legislative candidates, the Taipei Society on Tuesday released an evaluation of the performance of the 225 members of the fifth Legislative Yuan in the fourth and fifth terms. Forty-three lawmakers failed the evaluation and 59 are on the probation list. The legislators' poor performance is not unexpected.
Among the four major parties, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) ranked lowest, followed by the People First Party and the Taiwan Solidarity Union. The performance of the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) lawmakers was rated highest.
Ever since the KMT government relocated to Taiwan from China, our representative bodies have been controlled by "old thieves" or "corrupt courtiers." The "old thieves" included National Assembly members from China who enjoyed a lifetime membership under the KMT's rule. But after former president Lee Teng-hui (
The "old thieves" performed their duties under authoritarian rule while news was censored. Nobody looked into their misconduct, because the media were unable to monitor them. The media were no more than tools of the KMT's authoritarian rule -- rubber stamps to legitimize the party's will. But with the advent of freedom of the press, lawmakers' actions are exposed for public scrutiny. Unfortunately, the quality of their performance has failed to improve. An example is the vulgar language of the foul-mouthed KMT Legislator Yu Yueh-hsia (
Many unsuitable people can still get elected. Does the problem stem from the overall quality of voters? If not, how can these vile legislative candidates still attract votes? The crux of the problem is political parties' degenerate performance. For example, Taipei Society researcher Chang Kuei-mao (
This is the intrinsic problem with the KMT, which relies on an election machine fueled by vote-buying. Its intricate electioneering network operates through regional and clan organizations, which ensures that at least some of its legislators are guaranteed a seat in the legislature. The growth of public understanding is a long process. It is not that the public is ignorant, but simply that voters have to be informed. Fortunately there are a number of social justice groups who are willing to perform this role, setting up monitoring facilities and offering a direction for voters to follow. On Monday, the Taipei Society announced that it had sent questionnaires about six major political issues to 38 legislative candidates, but that only 12 were returned, the majority from DPP candidates. The society said that this cast doubt on the suitability of many legislators to be involved in the political process.
It is fortunate that, in the run-up to the elections, groups such as the Taipei Society and the Northern Taiwan Society have shown their social conscience in releasing such reports. We hope that the people of Taiwan will use their vote to voice their anger at the long-term degeneracy of legislators and direct the country toward the election of upright and capable lawmakers.
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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