The constitutional reform the nation needs should be based on two fundamental ideas: human rights and reconstruction of the legislative system, Taiwan Democracy Watch said yesterday, criticizing recent calls for changes to be made to the government system by the major political parties as “insincere” and “incomplete.”
National Taiwan University law professor and watchdog group supervisor Yen Chueh-an (顏厥安) said constitutional amendments should not be seen as the equivalent of constitutional reforms.
“It is possible for constitutional amendments to be small bore or take a turn for the worse,” Yen said.
Taiwan’s second democratic reform — the first having been the dangwai (黨外, “outside the party”) movement and subsequent democratic activities over the past 20 to 30 years — should aim for greater human rights and re-establishment of the nation’s parliament, the group said.
“So far, the calls for constitutional amendments have been focused on changes to the existing government system, but what is required is a complete set of substantial reforms rather than parties haggling [over the wanted revisions],” National Taiwan University College of Social Sciences professor Liu Ching-yi (劉靜怡) said.
One part of substantial reforms would require the state to protect people’s rights more aggressively, rather than waiting for citizens to make claims on their own, she said.
“The branches of our government have long overlooked the issue of human rights and have a limited understanding of what human rights are. They have enthusiastically engaged in power struggles, but have never fought each other to defend the rights of the people, who are the ones who conferred them the power,” Liu said.
On reconstruction of the parliamentary system, Yen said the idea is to have legislature fortified with the power and responsibility over policy formation and decisionmaking, rather than passively “catering to” the executive branch or boycotting policy implementation.
In North America and European nations, elected representatives debate public policies and decisions in their legislative bodies and assume responsibility for policy execution afterward, Yen said.
Taiwan, which underwent a long period of both colonial and authoritarian rule, lacks a similar parliamentarian spirit, Yen said.
“Our representatives’ only function is to convey public opinion to whoever is ruling, or channel decisions from the ruling party to make official decisions in the legislature. The political status of the legislature and its members is far lower than that of the executive branch, to the extent that lawmakers have to take orders from party officials,” Yen said.
The watchdog proposed three systems that are based on the idea of parliamentary governance: a Cabinet system, with indirect presidential elections; a quasi-Cabinet system, with directly elected presidents who lack substantial power; or the US presidential system, which features a strong Congress.
“Keeping in line with the concept of a parliament, the abolishment of the Control Yuan, which fragments the legislature’s investigative power, and the Examination Yuan could be expected,” Academia Sinica associate research professor Chiou Wen-tsong (邱文聰) said.
“Political parties should also be regulated to prevent them from owning, investing or running for-profit businesses, and from possessing an amount of property that is unrelated to their mission,” Chiou said.
National Taiwan University law professor Chen Chao-ju (陳昭如) said both the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) put too much emphasis on the operational mechanisms of politics, but not enough on the protection of human rights.
The KMT’s call for constitutional amendments is “insincere,” as it endorses a Cabinet system, but avoids making proposals on electoral system reforms for the legislature and the party, while the DPP’s focus on the electoral system and its recent call for presidential power to dismiss the legislature, as a way to counteract the KMT’s Cabinet system, are “running the party against public discontent regarding the expansion of presidential powers that come with no responsibilities and are incomplete,” Chen said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
RSS