The origin of immunity for spoken remarks or speeches can be traced back to 17th century Britain. At that time, the executive branch often relied on the judiciary to attack the legislative branch. Since then, however, legislative representatives have been transformed from the oppressed into the oppressors. Thus, western countries have moved away from absolute immunity with regards to legislative speech.
In Taiwan such immunity is provided by Article 73 of the Constitution -- "No member of the Legislative Yuan shall be held responsible outside the Yuan for opinion expressed ... in the Yuan." Article 50 of the "Local Autonomy Law"
The law and judicial opinions extend only relative, rather than absolute, immunity to the legislators. However, abuse of this immunity has been rampant. Administrative officials constantly face verbal abuse and defamatory allegations, including attacks on their family, when interpellating at the legislature and local councils.
Taiwan's legislative culture is virtually a miniature version of its "black gold" political culture. Lobbying for government procurement or construction contracts and personnel appointments is a full-time job for legislative representatives, while reviewing bills and supervising the government has been reduced to a part-time job or just a means to accomplish their personal objectives.
Therefore, it is common place for legislators to retaliate for failed lobbying attempts by deliberately boycotting bills and budgets. Worst case-scenarios include abusively lambasting officials during interpellations or making false accusations of bribe-taking or other offenses. Officials bear the insults in silence for the sake of keeping peace and harmony between the executive and legislative organs.
The passivity of administrative officials in the face of such abusive behavior only encouraged such attacks. These deformities of democracy, substantive proof of the deterioration of Taiwan's political culture, are loathed by the people. Administrative officials should have the moral courage to strike back.
Although legislators are backed by popular support, the voters did not vote for them so that they could insult government officials. The legislators must possess a certain degree of professional and legislative ethics, rather than act as they please.
An important target for the political reform in Taiwan is the culture of "black gold" politics. Reforms should protect people who criticize and expose the corruption of legislators, and encourage the administrative officials to bravely confront their verbal attacks. When faced with verbal humiliation from the legislators, they should file lawsuits to seek legal remedy to protect their reputations rather than suffer in silence.
The harmony between legislative and executive branches is important for any government. However, sacrificing the integrity of our system and compromising personal dignity is foolish and only contributes to Taiwan's degeneration.
The people now have high hopes of eliminating "black gold" politics. To do so, officials must resist improper legislative culture. Legal speech immunity does not include immunity from political accountability and responsibility. Suing a legislator does not guarantee that you will win, however, it is one way to let the people know the truth, so they can cast their votes accordingly.
Lee Ching-hsiung is a DPP legislator.
When US budget carrier Southwest Airlines last week announced a new partnership with China Airlines, Southwest’s social media were filled with comments from travelers excited by the new opportunity to visit China. Of course, China Airlines is not based in China, but in Taiwan, and the new partnership connects Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport with 30 cities across the US. At a time when China is increasing efforts on all fronts to falsely label Taiwan as “China” in all arenas, Taiwan does itself no favors by having its flagship carrier named China Airlines. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is eager to jump at
The muting of the line “I’m from Taiwan” (我台灣來欸), sung in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), during a performance at the closing ceremony of the World Masters Games in New Taipei City on May 31 has sparked a public outcry. The lyric from the well-known song All Eyes on Me (世界都看見) — originally written and performed by Taiwanese hip-hop group Nine One One (玖壹壹) — was muted twice, while the subtitles on the screen showed an alternate line, “we come here together” (阮作伙來欸), which was not sung. The song, performed at the ceremony by a cheerleading group, was the theme
Secretary of State Marco Rubio raised eyebrows recently when he declared the era of American unipolarity over. He described America’s unrivaled dominance of the international system as an anomaly that was created by the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War. Now, he observed, the United States was returning to a more multipolar world where there are great powers in different parts of the planet. He pointed to China and Russia, as well as “rogue states like Iran and North Korea” as examples of countries the United States must contend with. This all begs the question:
Liberals have wasted no time in pointing to Karol Nawrocki’s lack of qualifications for his new job as president of Poland. He has never previously held political office. He won by the narrowest of margins, with 50.9 percent of the vote. However, Nawrocki possesses the one qualification that many national populists value above all other: a taste for physical strength laced with violence. Nawrocki is a former boxer who still likes to go a few rounds. He is also such an enthusiastic soccer supporter that he reportedly got the logos of his two favorite teams — Chelsea and Lechia Gdansk —
RSS