Since Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) sounded the bugle call, the blue camp's city and county chiefs have joined forces to boycott the referendum plan on a technicality no matter what.
First, let's talk about the inappropriateness of their action from a legal perspective. National elections are tasks entrusted by central to local governments. Basically, the latter should carry out such tasks in accordance with the law, and should not boycott them on technicalities.
Second, the space for public servants to hesitate over the "per se illegality" of a law mainly occurs when the implementation of the law could result in irreparable damages to the people's rights. Even if the referendum is controversial, it will promote, rather than damage, the exercise of the people's basic rights. Why should blue-camp officials hesitate to implement it, if not for their political interests?
Third, the status of local autonomous administration is lower than that of central laws. But a referendum is a constitutional right. Public servants should certainly protect the exercise of the people's basic rights with all their strength. How can they interfere with or hamper the constitutional right with their low-level authority?
Fourth, legal experts from the blue camp often claim to uphold respect for the legislative major-ity. Although many articles of the Referendum Law (公民投票法) violate the Constitution, the bill was passed by the blue camp's law-makers. So why don't they amend it?
Fifth, the dispute could have been resolved by asking the Council of Grand Justices for a constitutional interpretation. Why didn't the blue camp do so? Is this because it's a dead end?
This also leads us to another issue: the grand justices were originally expected to have more comprehensive judicial power -- including "constitutional injunctions" -- through the enactment of and amendments to the three judicial reform bills. However, due to the blue camp's boycott of the three bills at the Legislative Yuan, a legal means of resolving major constitutional disputes failed to take shape.
Sixth, has the president interpreted the law inappropriately? Is his authority really unlimited? I pointed out long ago that the Constitution could hardly function after losing its fundamental principles. The expected "dual-leadership power-balancing mechanism" has never emerged, although it was strongly advocated by many strategists when the Constitution was amended in 1997. If the president has abused his power, isn't it a result of the blue camp's scheming and misuse of its legislative power by passing the authorization article?
When it comes to this point, the only course of action provided by the amended Constitution to the legislative majority is to put up a "no-confidence vote" against the Cabinet, thereby forcing the president to appoint a premier supported by the legislature.
If this succeeds, a power dispute over whether to hold the referendum may occur between the Cabinet and the president. But this would surely entail a number of a political risks, including the possible dissolution of the legislature and public criticism. Thus, there is still a power-balancing method. Apart from its cowardly harassments and boycotts, however, the legislative majority of the blue camp has never dared to abide by the Constitution.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is really strange. It has always engaged in subversion unless it's in power. Whether the referendum is a historical farce or the creation of a whole new dimension in democratic politics, please respect the decision and judgement of the Taiwanese people, who don't need the KMT's political instructions.
Yen Chueh-an is a law professor at National Taiwan University.
TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
A series of strong earthquakes in Hualien County not only caused severe damage in Taiwan, but also revealed that China’s power has permeated everywhere. A Taiwanese woman posted on the Internet that she found clips of the earthquake — which were recorded by the security camera in her home — on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu. It is spine-chilling that the problem might be because the security camera was manufactured in China. China has widely collected information, infringed upon public privacy and raised information security threats through various social media platforms, as well as telecommunication and security equipment. Several former TikTok employees revealed
The bird flu outbreak at US dairy farms keeps finding alarming new ways to surprise scientists. Last week, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) confirmed that H5N1 is spreading not just from birds to herds, but among cows. Meanwhile, media reports say that an unknown number of cows are asymptomatic. Although the risk to humans is still low, it is clear that far more work needs to be done to get a handle on the reach of the virus and how it is being transmitted. That would require the USDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to get
For the incoming Administration of President-elect William Lai (賴清德), successfully deterring a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) attack or invasion of democratic Taiwan over his four-year term would be a clear victory. But it could also be a curse, because during those four years the CCP’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will grow far stronger. As such, increased vigilance in Washington and Taipei will be needed to ensure that already multiplying CCP threat trends don’t overwhelm Taiwan, the United States, and their democratic allies. One CCP attempt to overwhelm was announced on April 19, 2024, namely that the PLA had erred in combining major missions
On April 11, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delivered a speech at a joint meeting of the US Congress in Washington, in which he said that “China’s current external stance and military actions present an unprecedented and the greatest strategic challenge … to the peace and stability of the international community.” Kishida emphasized Japan’s role as “the US’ closest ally.” “The international order that the US worked for generations to build is facing new challenges,” Kishida said. “I understand it is a heavy burden to carry such hopes on your shoulders,” he said. “Japan is already standing shoulder to shoulder