Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

 
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Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Bad laws are a threat to democracy

It is hard to imagine that the Legislative Yuan passed three major bills in one day — amendments to the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), the Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法) and the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) — amid chaotic clashes.

The legislative process of these three laws violates the spirit of deliberative democracy. Despite having gone through many changes and compromises, the draft bills were hastily passed without discussion and clause-by-clause examination.

Consequently, the legislative intent and purpose — which would be made clear in the discussion during the legislative process — would never be known, causing difficulties in applying, teaching and interpreting the laws.

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Safeguards against harmful laws

Following the controversial passage of amendments to the Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法), the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) and the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party legislators, it has been said that President William Lai (賴清德) could apply Article 37 of the Constitution and simply not promulgate the amendments, while the premier could refuse to countersign them into law.

Unfortunately, presidential promulgation and the premier’s countersignature are legal duties, which neither has the power to refuse. Such a refusal would only add to the chaos, break with constitutional procedure and bring the nation closer to a constitutional crisis. This stuff is constitutional law and governance 101.

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KMT bringing nation to brink

During the party-state era, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) controlled the media. It would portray the dangwai (黨外, “outside the party”) movement as violent disruptors and emphasize conflict in the legislature, saddling the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) with the unfair label of the “party of violence” for several decades.

Today, we are seeing images of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Yu-jen (陳玉珍), sporting a hard hat on her head and shoes with steel-toe caps on her feet charging to the legislative podium in an egregious display of violence. It is not for nothing that she has been called the “Kinmen tank.”

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Taiwan’s new constitutional moment

Within the past month, the world has witnessed the collapse of governments in France and Germany, while South Korea went through a surprise six hours of martial law, resulting in the impeachment of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol. In Canada, there have been calls for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to step down after the resignation of his finance minister.

Amid all this turmoil, Taiwan’s “vibrant” democracy is also facing its own crisis — again. Taiwan has long been thought to have made solid gains in consolidating its democratic systems, but as democracies around the world face increasing pressures, Taiwan is not immune.

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Newsflash

Japanese Representative to Taiwan Tadashi Imai and two Japanese community leaders in Taiwan yesterday thanked Taiwanese for their encouragement and donations for the victims of a massive earthquake and tsunami that devastated parts of the country one month ago.

Imai, Japanese Association in Taiwan chairman Koichiro Kusano and Japanese Chamber of Commerce & Industry chairman Kishimoto Kyota called a press conference at the Interchange Association, Japan’s representative office, to express their gratitude on behalf of Japanese in Taiwan.