On Tuesday, the Access to Government Information Law (
In the run-up to the Dec. 3 local elections, candidates from both camps suffered the effects of smear campaigns. A "culture of disclosure" overshadowed discussion on public policies and marked a new low for election campaigns. Several lawmakers used their legislative immunity to attack their opponents by disclosing incomplete or false data without stating their sources. Since it was impossible to verify the information, the media became the puppets of political parties. Although the public was fed up with these disclosures halfway through the campaign, it was impossible to end it it.
The new law will change all this. It is now possible to supervise the government and officials, and determine whether they have been involved in misconduct, by carefully searching for, reading, comparing and compiling treaties signed by the government, documents dealing with foreign relations, policy plans, research reports, budgets, public construction and procurement contracts, as well as reports on subsidies to agencies and meeting protocols.
Non-governmental organizations and the media can now request that the government provide the tender documents for the MRT project in Kaohsiung or financial information provided by electoral candidates. Political parties, candidates and reporters will now have the wherewithal to expose government corruption or claim that government policies are inappropriate, while government officials will be able to defend themselves in an open and fair manner.
Article 18 of the law, however, lists nine categories of government information to which access will be limited or denied. These include information legally designated as state secrets and information that is deemed secret under other laws whose publication is limited or prohibited. Information that involves human rights, individual privacy, maintaining fair examinations, benefits to state-operated enterprises and cultural capital, can also be exempted.
The question now is who will define what constitutes a state secret. Because the government is both the supervised and the supervisor, it may put the label "state secret" on information that it does not want publicized, which would lead to disputes.
Article 21 addresses this, stating that an applicant who does not accept the information a government institution has decided to provide has the legal right to file an administrative complaint.
The government should also amend the State Secrets Act (
Friday was International Anti-Corruption Day. The results of the annual Corruption Perception Index showed that Taiwan's ranking among 12 Asian countries fell from fourth in 2003 to sixth this year. The Taiwan chapter of the international non-governmental organization Transparency International also recently published a report saying that about 80 percent of the public believe that the legislature and the political parties are the most corrupt entities in the nation.
Fighting corruption was regarded by many as the most important issue in the local elections, so the Access to Government Information Law has been passed in the nick of time. It will help Taiwan build a society with several monitoring agencies and will promote clean politics.
There is much evidence that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is sending soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — and is learning lessons for a future war against Taiwan. Until now, the CCP has claimed that they have not sent PLA personnel to support Russian aggression. On 18 April, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinskiy announced that the CCP is supplying war supplies such as gunpowder, artillery, and weapons subcomponents to Russia. When Zelinskiy announced on 9 April that the Ukrainian Army had captured two Chinese nationals fighting with Russians on the front line with details
On a quiet lane in Taipei’s central Daan District (大安), an otherwise unremarkable high-rise is marked by a police guard and a tawdry A4 printout from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicating an “embassy area.” Keen observers would see the emblem of the Holy See, one of Taiwan’s 12 so-called “diplomatic allies.” Unlike Taipei’s other embassies and quasi-consulates, no national flag flies there, nor is there a plaque indicating what country’s embassy this is. Visitors hoping to sign a condolence book for the late Pope Francis would instead have to visit the Italian Trade Office, adjacent to Taipei 101. The death of
By now, most of Taiwan has heard Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an’s (蔣萬安) threats to initiate a vote of no confidence against the Cabinet. His rationale is that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)-led government’s investigation into alleged signature forgery in the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) recall campaign constitutes “political persecution.” I sincerely hope he goes through with it. The opposition currently holds a majority in the Legislative Yuan, so the initiation of a no-confidence motion and its passage should be entirely within reach. If Chiang truly believes that the government is overreaching, abusing its power and targeting political opponents — then
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), joined by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), held a protest on Saturday on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei. They were essentially standing for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which is anxious about the mass recall campaign against KMT legislators. President William Lai (賴清德) said that if the opposition parties truly wanted to fight dictatorship, they should do so in Tiananmen Square — and at the very least, refrain from groveling to Chinese officials during their visits to China, alluding to meetings between KMT members and Chinese authorities. Now that China has been defined as a foreign hostile force,
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