Mon, Aug 17, 2015 page3

• Academics urge committee system change

  PLAYING TO THE CROWD? When choosing which committees to sit on, legislators tend to focus on winning potential votes rather than building expertise, academics said

  • By Tseng Wei-chen and Chen Wei-han / Staff reporter, with staff writer
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  The lack of a seniority system in the Legislative Yuan, that would recognize lawmakers’ competence based on the length of their service on a particular committee, and the high frequency at which legislators switch between committees, contributes to an unsatisfactory legislative performance, lawmakers and academics said.

  Seats on the Economics Committee and the Transportation and Communications Committee are the most sought-after in the legislature, and even directly-elected district legislators have to vie for committee assignment via a name-draw, whereas the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee and the Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee are common destinations for junior caucus members or legislators-at-large, Soochow University politics professor Hawang Shiow-duan (黃秀端) said.

  Members of the US Congress are given the privilege of choosing committee assignments based on seniority. Taiwanese lawmakers’ choice of committee assignments is often base on electoral needs, Hawang said.

  It is common for US congressmen to serve on a committee for decades, making them more knowledgeable than heads of government about the workings of their area of expertise.

  The US has a presidential system that stresses the checking and balancing of presidential power, so that US Congress is vested with great authority, she said, adding that the committees under the US Congress must be professional, experienced and authoritative enough to oversee the executive branch.

  The committees of Taiwan’s legislature have little power and have no final say on issues they are authorized to deal with, with conclusions often overruled by cross-party negotiation, she said, adding that individual lawmakers’ professional judgment is sometimes outweighed by the decision of their own parties.

  With a relatively small number of legislators, few committee members are capable of fully understanding all the committee agendas, she said, adding that legislators spend a lot of time tending to their constituents to seek re-election, making it more difficult for them to accumulate expertise in a particular field.

  Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方), who has been a member of the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee since 2002, said that knowledge is acquired over time, and it would be difficult for legislators who frequently switch committees to get a handle on issues.

  He said that in the US Congress, committee chairmanship is given to senior congressmen, while in Taiwan it is common for newly elected lawmakers to act as committee conveners.

  Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津), who is a long-standing member of the Transportation and Communications Committee, said the credit system of the DPP caucus is established to build a seniority system.

  She decided to serve at the Transportation and Communications Committee after serving on several other committees, she said, adding that legislators-at-large could be tapped to take up special fields of interest.

  DPP Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯), who shifted from the Transportation and Communications Committee to the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee after he was reassigned as a legislator-at-large from district legislator, said it is natural for district legislators to opt for the Economics Committee and the Transportation and Communications Committee, because the economy and transportation are key issues for their constituents.

  The party caucus should reserve seats for senior legislators with more credits to give consideration to both the party’s overall strategic planning and the quality of lawmakers, Tsai said.

  Expertise and experience would grow if legislators pledged long-term commitment to a certain committee, Lin said.

  National Taipei University public administration professor Hao Pei-chih (郝培芝) said that the administrative oversight of the Legislative Yuan is between that of the US Congress and the French Parliament, adding that the power of the Cabinet could be increased by transferring the investigative power of the Control Yuan to the Legislative Yuan through a constitutional amendment.
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