The National Assembly has successfully ratified constitutional amendments which, among other things, mandate the assembly's permanent dissolution. This is the seventh round of constitutional revision in the last 14 years, and the final round to be presided over by the National Assembly.
The National Assembly's right to amend the Constitution -- including the definition of national boundaries -- will be given to the legislature, and such changes will be ratified by a national vote. Its right to initiate an impeachment of the president and vice-president will now also be passed on to the legislature, with such cases to be decided by the Council of Grand Justices.
Other achievements of this last National Assembly include extending the term for legislators from three to four years to coincide with the terms of the President and Vice-President. The right of women to participate in politics is further bolstered, with 50 percent quotas for legislators-at-large and overseas Chinese legislators from all parties. The reduction of the legislature from 225 to 113 seats starting from 2008 is a punishment meted out by voters to Taiwan's lazy and irresponsible legislators. But because of the smaller numbers of seats, the legislature will become more vulnerable to manipulation by financial interests.
The adoption of the single-member district, two vote system for the election has been criticized by Taiwan's smaller parties, for the single-member district works to the advantage of the larger parties. Critics say that it will lead to a face-off between the two large parties in which the voice of smaller parties is drowned out, reducing the diversity of opinion. Supporters of the system say that under the the new system, legislators will be more representative of the electorate, and the legislature will be led by politicians with strong roots in local communities. This will make it difficult for political extremists to get elected, and the political parties will have to show greater respect for local opinion.
We believe the purpose of a constitution is to ensure and uphold the highest interests of all citizens. Therefore, the articles of the Constitution must be amended according to the changing needs of the people, with a new constitution created if necessary. Although the amendment of the Constitution has achieved substantial results, it is regrettable that due to the requirement that amendments in the future be ratified by a three-quarters legislative majority, we now have one of the highest thresholds in the world for changing the Constitution. Even if proposals surmount this barrier, they then need the consent of half the total electorate. This makes some people pessimistic about the feasibility of the next round of constitutional reform.
But constitutional reform must continue if Taiwan's constitutional chaos is to be resolved. According to the Presidential Office's proposal, the next round of constitutional revision will help determine whether the country should have a three-branch or five-branch government, and clarify whether the executive branch is a presidential or cabinet system. It will also address issues that are closely related to peoples' everyday lives, such as the abolition of the Taiwan Provincial Government, the lowering of the voting age, reduction in the length of mandatory military service, inclusion of labor rights in the constitution and Aboriginal welfare.
Clearly, all of these issues have nothing to do with Taiwanese independence. Setting a high threshold will only impede the operation of Taiwan's Constitution and deprive people of the exercise of their democratic rights. In the future, the legislature should therefore quickly seek to lower this threshold to avoid future constitutional conflict and prevent the country from becoming an international laughingstock.
Taiwan's constitutional reform has gotten this far, and there is no reason to stop now. No matter how difficult it may be to reach the next stage of revision, we believe that public opinion in Taiwan will support those who uphold continuous constitutional reform and relegate into the dustbin of history those who oppose the people's will.
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,
RSS