In fact, political contributions and party-run businesses can be regulated by amending the Civic Organization Law or by simply adding provisions into the Political Contributions Law.
Meanwhile, provisions in the Lobby Law can be achieved by amending the Civil Service Law (公務員服務法), Legislators' Conduct Act (立法委員行為法), and the Administrative Procedure Law (行政程序法).
These will achieve the same results without creating conflicts with other laws. If in the future the need arises to enact the four sunshine laws in question, then the legislature will have more time to work on them, with fewer election schemes to consider.
Finally, the ruling and opposition parties tend to use secret negotiations to work out the content of the bills, which are then passed through second and third readings in the legislature. It may be easier for the parties to reach agreements during secret negotiations, but open debates are an important factor in reasonable legislative procedures and they are also a source of legitimacy for any parliamentary decision.
As candidates auction their policies and political parties to vie for achievements to show off during the presidential campaign, no one appears to think about post-election accountability. These four laws will have a decisive impact on Taiwan's future political system. Trying to hurrying them through the legislature amid election hysteria would have been extremely dangerous.
In drafting the four laws, the legislative branch's interest lay in taking credit and looking for a chance to lash out at others, while the executive branch was basically helping out Lien's camp.
The process has turned laws into a tool to curry favor with voters before the election. Once laws become totems that lull the electorate to sleep, their actual content and effectiveness will erode.
Lin Cho-shui is a DPP legislator.
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