Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) recently said that "throughout the nation's political history, we have never seen the speakership and party chairmanship held concurrently," and that "the Legislative Yuan cannot become part of party machinery."
But Ker's remarks are an example of a lack of understanding of parliamentary politics. Parliamentary politics is party politics. It is true of both the US Congress and the British Parliament. Moreover, parliament is composed of representatives from different parties directly elected by the people. The operation of legislative sessions is also a political wrestling match between the majority and minority in the legislature. If the legislature does not conform to the principles of party politics, this negates the reason for its existence.
The legislative speaker's job is to preside over legislative sessions impartially. However, this does not mean that the speaker is without party affiliation. To put it simply, we have never seen a totally neutral legislative speaker.
Furthermore, the legislative speaker is a senior member of a political party and there is no reason why he or she cannot be a party chairman. Even a nation's president, if he is not a party chairman, is still considered as playing a leading role in his or her party.
For example, if the US president is a Republican, then the head of the Republican Party is the US president. If the speaker of the House of Representatives is a Democrat, then the leader of the Democratic Party is the speaker of the house. During the administrations of the late US president Ronald Reagan and former president Bill Clinton, speakers of the House of Representatives were Tip O'Neill and Newt Gingrich respectively, who played their role as opposition leaders. Whether to cooperate with or confront the president depends on the political choice of the parliamentary speaker. Sam Rayburn, one of O'Neill's predecessors, chose to cooperate with former presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Lyndon B. Johnson. However, O'Neill chose to confront Reagan, and Gingrich clashed so fiercely with Clinton that some US government agencies had to suspend their services.
Ker further stated that "it has been the darkest years since Wang Jin-pyng (
Rayburn chose to cooperate with both Eisenhower and Johnson because these two presidents were not driven by ideology. Conversely, O'Neill and Gingrich were dealing with presidents who obviously acted from partisan motives. If these two speakers had not chosen to confront the White House, they would be going against the interests of their party as well as the House of Representatives.
A legislative speaker is the guardian of legislative power. When a president becomes so domineering that he is scornful of the legislature, the speaker has to come forward and fight against domineering executive power to uphold the dignity and interests of the legislature. By no means can the speaker turn a blind eye to executive power being contemptuous of the legislative power.
Even if Wang becomes the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman, his role as legislative speaker will still be his top priority. Whether or not he can perform well as a speaker will have nothing to do with his chairmanship. Whether he seeks the KMT chairmanship has everything to do with his personal interests and nothing to do with the legislature.
Wang Chien-chuang is the president of The Journalist magazine.
TRANSLATED BY DANIEL CHENG
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