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The public needs the legislature to open up

TAIWAN'S DEMOCRACY HAS reached a watershed: Its future development depends upon the integrity of the parliamentary system, which in turn relies on the impartial help of each and every political party.

At the establishment of the Taiwan Vision Forum and Association (台灣前途展望協會), academics and other experts were invited to give their opinions of legislative operations. Among the myriad of perspectives there was a common desire to improve the situation of political opposition and hostility, inefficiency in the legislature and ineffective monitoring of Cabinet operations -- all of which could be corrected through changes in regulations governing the legislature and an overall elevation of the quality of legislators.

To address the behavior of individual legislators, the association has organized a campaign titled "I want a high-quality legislator." Legislative candidates from every party have responded in support. However, in terms of the overall operations of the legislative system, change depends on a consensus between political parties and a group effort in implementing new regulations.

After compiling recommendations regarding reforms in the legislative system and discussions with representatives from the Citizen Congress Watch (公民監督國會聯盟), the Peacetime Foundation of Taiwan (台灣促進和平文教基金會), the Taiwan Competitiveness Forum (台灣競爭力論壇) and other organizations all agreed that at the current stage, the legislature urgently needs transparency in its discussions between ruling and opposition parties, meetings of the Procedure Committee and voting.

Negotiations between ruling and opposition parties were originally intended to reconcile deadlocks, help reach a consensus and defuse emotive disputes. In the past, in order to maintain harmony and party prestige, politics were mostly discussed behind closed doors. Although the results of these meetings were eventually publicized, it was still satirized as "closed door politics" and it was suspected there were secret dealings between parties. Only with complete transparency in cross-party negotiations can the well-meaning efforts of political parties be understood by the public.

The Procedure Committee is responsible for determining the order in which proposals from various committees and the results of cross-party negotiations are considered on the legislative agenda. If you aren't a member of the committee, there is no access to this process. The smoothness of legislative sessions and the intensity of party conflicts are strongly influenced by the ordering of cases. If the process and results of Procedure Committee discussions were made public, it would allow better understanding of why highly contentious cases must take priority over those of a less controversial nature, and thus lead to better appreciation of the difficulties in party operations.

In democratic societies, voting is the last measure in determining controversial issues. The public has entrusted voting on bills to the legislators -- therefore all votes should be public. The Taiwan Vision Forum and Association hopes that open votes can become the norm. There is nothing that cannot be made public, especially when the issues are already public in nature.

The Taiwan Vision Forum and Association has organized a campaign advocating legislative transparency and invites all parties to lend their support. Hopefully, parties will be responsive to the public and allow the legislature to operate in the open.

Politics and the public can only remain in tune with transparency. Only then will parties accomplish the tasks they have been assigned by the public, rather than cheating them out of democracy.

Tang Fei is a former premier and current president of the Taiwan Vision Forum and Association.

TRANSLATED BY ANNA STIGGELBOUT AND ANGELA HONG
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