After returning from his overseas tour, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has immediately gotten down to working on the economy. Chen certainly deserves praise for his verve, but, during a recent meeting with a group of financial institution heads, Chen said he had previously focused on cross-strait relations, national defense and foreign relations. Given the deteriorating domestic economy, however, he would have to "come forward and grapple with Taiwan's economic and domestic problems," he said with a sense of mission reminiscent of Chou Wen-wang (周文王), the founder of the Chou dynasty. But does our president really have such sweeping power under Taiwan's constitution?
The spirit of constitutionalism and classical liberalism lies in the concept that power, as well as restraints on power, should come from the Constitution, instead of anyone's free interpretation or sense of mission, otherwise, the possibility of politicians expanding or even abusing their powers arises. Our president and premier appeared at the same public event, and suddenly decided to "come forward and tackle economic and domestic problems." The possible damage this can do to our constitutional operations should not be overlooked.
Also, from the viewpoint of political accountability, shouldn't Chen be supervised by the legislature as he makes related major decisions? Shouldn't the premier continue to "answer" to the Legislative Yuan? Also, does the sense of urgency he demonstrated amount to admitting that there had indeed been lapses in government agencies' handling of economic problems? Otherwise, why would he need to "come out and resolve them?" But the problem is: who should take responsibility for past policy mistakes? Or, is this just another so-called "price of democracy"?
Everyone is concerned about the economy. But to resolve Taiwan's economic problems, we cannot rely on the shifting posturing of the decision-makers. Unfortunately, Taiwan's constitutional system, weak as it is, may become an accidental sacrifice to "work on the economy" and politically correct thinking.
Wang Yeh-lih is a professor of political science at National Tunghai University.
Translated by Francis Huang
RSS