The Economist Intelligence Unit published its Democracy Index for last year. Of the 167 countries included, Taiwan came in at No. 10, first in Asia. The legislature’s oversight and checks and balances of government powers, as well as Citizen Congress Watch’s civic legislative oversight coalition, are important tools that have helped Taiwan transition to and deepen democracy.
The public has high expectations for party politics and legislative democracy. It is difficult to avoid criticism and feelings of disappointment derived from falling short of the mark. Taiwanese democracy can only compete with itself, and this being the case, the nation’s attempts at reforming the legislature must tie together its experiences and political culture, as well as borrow lessons from parliaments in other advanced democracies, expanding from the basis of the Constitution.
Citizen Congress Watch, of which I am executive director, has long advocated reforming the legislature, urging candidates to sign a “letter of commitment to constitutional reform,” yet since the start of the 11th legislative session, the new legislature has mired itself in a string of questionable efforts at reform.
At first, the public regarded the legislature — with none of its three parties holding an outright majority — as being capable of resolving the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) “tyranny of the majority” from the past eight years, but the situation now looks as if the coalition between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) is doing nothing more than imposing its own tyranny of the majority, only further inflaming the issue, as it has on multiple occasions gone so far as to block the DPP’s slight minority from speaking and deliberating on legislative proposals.
Obviously, these developments are a serious betrayal of the spirit of democratic oversight.
The 11th session of the legislature is a train wreck, starting with Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu’s (韓國瑜) legislative malpractice through personally tallying barely announced open votes, conducted through a simple show of hands. The KMT caucus continuously holds the legislature hostage by relying on the number of legislators it has. It rejects following proper procedures, disclosing conflicts of interest and debating and critiquing legislative proposals.
The legislature’s Procedure Committee has not even bothered to review or properly deliberate multiple proposals.
Even when more than 100,000 Taiwanese protested outside the Legislative Yuan in May, KMT and TPP legislators, with their combined majority in the legislature, still rammed through their sponsored bills to expand the legislature’s power.
The legislature’s actions are lamentable and a far cry from Citizen Congress Watch’s and many other civic groups’ expectations for legislative reform.
First, legislative reforms should be done by taking stock of how the Constitution functions, which has at this point developed into a system that includes an executive and legislative branch. The president’s newly formed administration and the legislature must work together to establish a new platform for communication.
Second, the legislature should make improvements centered on increasing debate and deliberation between political parties.
Third, legislators should consider establishing a legislative investigative power mechanism in conjunction with lawmakers’ disclosure of conflicts of interests.
The more powers that are accumulated, the greater the need for checks and balances.
Tseng Chien-yuan is an adjunct associate professor in the departments of Social Sciences and Hakka Studies at National Central University, as well as Citizen Congress Watch executive director.
Translated by Tim Smith
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