Even those without legal training know that the constitution is the most fundamental law of a country. Since the start of the legislative session, three legislators from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) coalition — KMT Legislator Wu Tsung-hsien (吳宗憲), KMT Legislator Weng Hsiao-ling (翁曉玲) and TPP Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) — have prioritized the introduction of several amendments that would expand legislative powers.
The goal of these amendments is to help the opposition manipulate the constitutional system, making it easier to comply with the Chinese Communist Party’s requirements for Taiwan and allow the opposition to smoothly seize administrative resources.
Fortunately, the Cabinet followed the constitutional system and challenged the legislation in the Constitutional Court, allowing the judiciary to make a ruling on these harmful and unconstitutional provisions. The court’s ruling followed the spirit of the Constitution — they determined that most of the amendments were unconstitutional, especially those that would grant lawmakers broader investigative powers because they would lead to a situation where expanded legislative powers would undermine executive authority.
The Cabinet has acted entirely in accordance with the Constitution, yet Weng unexpectedly proposed that the Legislative Yuan need not comply with the court’s ruling. Alarmism like this is detrimental to the constitutional system. Weng and Huang each hold a doctorate in law, while Wu has previously served as a prosecutor. Even with such prestigious legal backgrounds, they are willing to play with the law and ignore the constitutional order merely to obtain political power.
Even though the opposition coalition holds a legislative majority, the results of the presidential election granted executive power to the Democratic Progressive Party. The KMT-TPP coalition hopes to use their majority to prevent President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration from promoting policies beneficial to Taiwan, thereby paralyzing further progress.
However, our constitutional system is not so easily harmed. Legislative powers cannot undermine executive powers, nor can they compromise the Constitution or the nation. Taking that step would inflict irreversible damage from which our country might never recover.
If even our legislators say that we need not comply with the constitutional system, why should the public even bother to follow national law? This ideology would lead to chaos — the true intention of the KMT-TPP coalition.
Chen Chi-nung is a political commentator.
Translated by Kyra Gustavsen
To The Honorable Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜): We would like to extend our sincerest regards to you for representing Taiwan at the inauguration of US President Donald Trump on Monday. The Taiwanese-American community was delighted to see that Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan speaker not only received an invitation to attend the event, but successfully made the trip to the US. We sincerely hope that you took this rare opportunity to share Taiwan’s achievements in freedom, democracy and economic development with delegations from other countries. In recent years, Taiwan’s economic growth and world-leading technology industry have been a source of pride for Taiwanese-Americans.
Next week, the nation is to celebrate the Lunar New Year break. Unfortunately, cold winds are a-blowing, literally and figuratively. The Central Weather Administration has warned of an approaching cold air mass, while obstinate winds of chaos eddy around the Legislative Yuan. English theologian Thomas Fuller optimistically pointed out in 1650 that “it’s always darkest before the dawn.” We could paraphrase by saying the coldest days are just before the renewed hope of spring. However, one must temper any optimism about the damage being done in the legislature by the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), under
To our readers: Due to the Lunar New Year holiday, from Sunday, Jan. 26, through Sunday, Feb. 2, the Taipei Times will have a reduced format without our regular editorials and opinion pieces. From Tuesday to Saturday the paper will not be delivered to subscribers, but will be available for purchase at convenience stores. Subscribers will receive the editions they missed once normal distribution resumes on Sunday, Feb. 2. The paper returns to its usual format on Monday, Feb. 3, when our regular editorials and opinion pieces will also be resumed.
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