A coalition of youth groups yesterday urged lawmakers to draft a new constitution that would better reflect the separate governance of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.
The coalition, called the Taiwan New Constitution Youth Front, said that it wants a constitution that guarantees more rights, reflects the nation’s current political reality and contains the “voices of the youth.”
The coalition’s call came after the Legislative Yuan on Tuesday formally established an ad hoc Constitutional Amendment Committee, following the approval of a list of 39 committee members from across party lines.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
The “first problem” in the amendment process is a bottleneck of more than 30 proposed amendments advanced by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), said Feng Hui-lun (馮輝倫), a coalition organizer and Taoyuan City Youth Advisory Committee member.
The DPP must arrive at an internal consensus and then iron out agreements with opposition parties, he said.
Once a proposed constitutional amendment leaves the Legislative Yuan and a six-month public notice is completed, then nearly 10 million voters must approve the proposal in a referendum, he added.
The Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China (中華民國憲法增修條文) stipulates that after the legislature approves a proposal to amend the Constitution, more than one-half of the nation’s electorate must vote in favor of the proposal in a referendum.
In the Jan. 11 presidential election, there were 19,311,105 eligible voters, Central Election Commission data showed.
Under “such difficult circumstances,” it might be “more appropriate” for the nation to draw up a new constitution, Feng said.
The Constitution has been revised seven times — mostly recently in 2005, he added.
“Over the past 15 years, with changes in culture and technology, many new ideas and concepts have been proposed and discussed,” Feng said. “However, the protection of rights has not kept up.”
“The Republic of China has been in Taiwan for 70 years, but when we open the Constitution of the Republic of China, we find that there are many parts that are not in line with the current political reality of separate governance of the two sides [of the Taiwan Strait],” coalition organizer Lin Chun-chieh (林俊杰) said.
Lin, a law student at Chung Yuan Christian University in Taoyuan, said that he urges “all young people and all people of different generations to stand up and speak your vision of the country.”
“A lot of young people have in the past few years continued to stand up,” Taiwan Youth Association for Democracy managing director Alvin Chang (張育萌) said.
“It is not a coincidence,” Chang added. “Young people today urgently desire the reform of the constitutional government.”
Additional reporting by CNA
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
The Civil Aviation Administration yesterday said that it is considering punishments for China Airlines (CAL) and Starlux Airlines for making hard landings and overworking their cabin crew when the nation was hit by Typhoon Kong-rey in October last year. The civil aviation authority launched an investigation after media reported that many airlines were forced to divert their flights to different airports or go around after failing to land when the typhoon affected the nation on Oct. 30 and 31 last year. The agency reviewed 503 flights dispatched by Taiwanese airlines during those two days, as well as weather data, flight hours
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Three people have had their citizenship revoked after authorities confirmed that they hold Chinese ID cards, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said yesterday. Two of the three people were featured in a recent video about Beijing’s “united front” tactics by YouTuber Pa Chiung (八炯) and Taiwanese rapper Chen Po-yuan (陳柏源), including Su Shi-en (蘇士恩), who displayed a Chinese ID card in the video, and taekwondo athlete Lee Tung-hsien (李東憲), who mentioned he had obtained a Chinese ID card in a telephone call with Chen, Liang told the council’s weekly news conference. Lee, who reportedly worked in
RSS