On June 7, the Cabinet extended a nationwide level 3 COVID-19 alert until Monday next week. In line with disease control measures, local councils have suspended their proceedings. Councils were originally scheduled to hold regular plenary sessions during this period.
For example, the Kaohsiung City Council reportedly has unfinished business scheduled for its fifth regular plenary session that includes general city governance interpolation, motions proposed by the city government, and second and third readings of motions proposed by councilors.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, people have been going out less and avoiding gatherings. In the workplace, private companies that are big enough or have been proactive about disease control were mostly prepared for the outbreak that began in Taiwan last month.
Those that can conduct business remotely have arranged for staff to work from home, while those that cannot have reinforced disease prevention measures, such as disinfection, staggered work hours, parallel teams and employee health management.
Government agencies can likewise take this opportunity to do more of their business online and improve online functions. They can improve software and hardware, and train staff to provide online processing and handling of applications, meetings, resolutions, petitions, appeals and so on.
The Judicial Yuan has announced commensurate measures and is working on a special law on judicial procedures.
Putting government business online and making it convenient for the public requires investment in budgets and training, along with long-term planning, implementation and updating. As well as being essential for epidemic and disaster prevention, this can also promote the development and progress of businesses such as those that provide digital conferencing software and hardware solutions.
The European Parliament, the US Congress and local councils in other countries have been handling their agendas through videoconferences. They have introduced legislative amendments to deal with the legal and technical issues of videoconferences, such as how to calculate attendance in person or by proxy, and voting rights, as well as protecting immunity of speech and extending deadlines for dealing with motions. Taiwan can and should learn from these experiences.
In July last year, the Tainan City Council issued its Guidelines for the Conduct of Videoconference Meetings During the Epidemic of Severe Pneumonia with Novel Pathogens (因應嚴重特殊傳染性肺炎疫情開議期間兼採視訊會議開會作業準則). Although these guidelines were originally designed for council members who could not attend sessions due to home quarantine or isolation, other councils can use them as a reference for extending parallel work and holding remote meetings. Consultations between city officials and council members could also be held online.
While council meetings are suspended under the level 3 alert, public requests for assistance — many of which are related to the outbreak — from their representatives have not stopped. This shows that the public still needs councilors and city governments to conduct continuous and necessary communication, deliberation and supervision with regard to municipal governance.
Hopefully governments and councils will lead the way in using things like digital technology, online communications, parallel teams and disinfection to continue their work and meetings, even while council sessions remain suspended. If they do, it would reduce the impact of the outbreak and give Taiwanese the strength and guidance they need to go on.
Tang Yung-yu is an attorney-at-law.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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