It has been 20 years since the lifting of martial law, but the democratic government of Taiwan is in serious trouble. If we look back on the development of Taiwanese democracy, it seems that although the struggle for the lifting of martial law was a long and arduous one, building a healthy democratic system is even more difficult.
In theory, the goal of democratization is to establish a working system of democratic governance by political parties. Although a peaceful transfer of power took place in 2000, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration has not been able to function effectively. The opposition parties inherited the legislative majority that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) had held for so long, and now effectively boycott and obstruct the government.
Although the ruling party hasn't had the means to break the powerful opposition boycott, with its ample administrative resources, the DPP government should have been able to achieve more than it has. Instead, it has been dogged by corruption.
The root of the problem is the conflict between the political parties. They seem to think that "governing" means monopolizing government resources and executive agencies, as well as high positions in and the resources of state-run businesses. The opposition, on the other hand, puts all its effort into obstructing the government and regaining power. The transfer of power turned out to be little different from one dynasty overthrowing another; all that has changed is the party controlling the resources.
The transition to democracy entailed large-scale and fundamental reform. Yet eight constitutional amendments have failed to make democracy take root. The most remarkable thing about the administration of President Chen Shui-bian (
In May last year, under great pressure, Chen announced that he would reduce his presidential powers. But after the crisis of the anti-Chen protests passed, the president relapsed into his old bad habits, exercising more power than he should be entitled to. Often his actions are political, forcing executive departments and the DPP to act in accordance with his designs.
After martial law was lifted and Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) succeeded Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) as president, Lee wanted to amend the Executive Yuan Organic Law (行政院組織法) to overhaul the structure of the executive organizations. But now, almost 20 years later, there has still been no real reform. In the last years of KMT rule, then premier Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) pushed to "rebuild the government," but this initiative petered out.
After the DPP took office, it too made a point of saying it would carry out governmental reform, but nothing came of that either. Amendments to the Executive Yuan Organic Law have been placed on the legislative agenda, but have always failed to pass.
Many politicians have made plans for large-scale reforms of the upper echelons of the executive. But implementation of these plans has been postponed, causing serious damage to the running of the government and the development of the country, as well as to the development of the nation's democracy.
The legislature is in even greater need of reform. Because of the KMT's monopoly and the powerlessness of the governing party's legislators, the legislature has become notorious for its inefficiency and flawed procedures. In recent years, the legislature has seriously hindered the functioning of the government and the country's overall development.
Now that politicians, because of populist concerns and a lack of political wisdom, have amended the Constitution to halve the number of seats in the legislature, each representative will have much greater power in the next legislature. Moreover, judging by the results of the legislative primaries, the quality of the representatives might drop significantly. For these reasons, the future of the legislature looks bleak. Taiwan's democratic governance will suffer seriously as a result.
As early as 1999, the National Judicial Reform Committee planned many fundamental and important programs for the reform of the judiciary. But although some headway has been made, there has been almost no progress at all on the most fundamental proposals for judicial reform, such as establishing the "judge law" and "public prosecutors law," as well as amendments to the Organic Law of the Judicial Yuan (司法院組織法). The ruling party doesn't have enough power to push through amendments and new laws, and high-level decision-makers in the opposition have no intention of cooperating, and so that has come to a halt as well.
The executive, the legislature and the judiciary are the same as they've always been, as the many plans for reform have stalled. This, of course, negatively influences the efficiency of the government and the development of society.
Political parties only act to protect their own interests, resulting in bitter infighting, and have no intention of working to establish a healthy democratic system. The reform of the executive, legislature and judiciary can't be expected in the foreseeable future.
Twenty years after martial law was lifted, democratic governance in Taiwan faces a crisis even more serious than in the martial law era.
Political parties yield considerable power in Taiwanese politics, but with that power comes the responsibility to solve the many problems facing the country and to establish a healthy democratic system.
Chiu Hei-yuan is the director of the Institute of Sociology at the Academia Sinica.
Translated by Anna Stiggelbout
Could Asia be on the verge of a new wave of nuclear proliferation? A look back at the early history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, illuminates some reasons for concern in the Indo-Pacific today. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described NATO as “the most powerful and successful alliance in history,” but the organization’s early years were not without challenges. At its inception, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty marked a sea change in American strategic thinking. The United States had been intent on withdrawing from Europe in the years following
My wife and I spent the week in the interior of Taiwan where Shuyuan spent her childhood. In that town there is a street that functions as an open farmer’s market. Walk along that street, as Shuyuan did yesterday, and it is next to impossible to come home empty-handed. Some mangoes that looked vaguely like others we had seen around here ended up on our table. Shuyuan told how she had bought them from a little old farmer woman from the countryside who said the mangoes were from a very old tree she had on her property. The big surprise
The issue of China’s overcapacity has drawn greater global attention recently, with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen urging Beijing to address its excess production in key industries during her visit to China last week. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said that Europe must have a tough talk with China on its perceived overcapacity and unfair trade practices. The remarks by Yellen and Von der Leyen come as China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition. Beijing is trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy out of a COVID-19 slump, the property crisis and
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) trip to China provides a pertinent reminder of why Taiwanese protested so vociferously against attempts to force through the cross-strait service trade agreement in 2014 and why, since Ma’s presidential election win in 2012, they have not voted in another Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate. While the nation narrowly avoided tragedy — the treaty would have put Taiwan on the path toward the demobilization of its democracy, which Courtney Donovan Smith wrote about in the Taipei Times in “With the Sunflower movement Taiwan dodged a bullet” — Ma’s political swansong in China, which included fawning dithyrambs