It seems the Control Yuan is hellbent on giving the public more reasons that it should be abolished, as its latest ruling has many questioning its impartiality yet again.
The Control Yuan, a supposed independent watchdog agency charged with overseeing government officials, on Tuesday voted seven to two to impeach Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) for violating the Local Government Act (地方制度法). It said his failure to attend the Tainan City Council’s question-and-answer sessions — as a result of his boycott until corruption cases involving Tainan Council Speaker Lee Chuan-chiao (李全教) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) are settled — has set a “bad example” for local government.
The decision immediately caused a ruckus, with netizens questioning “why a mayor enjoying the support of more than 700,000 votes [or 72.9 percent of the votes in last year’s Tainan mayoral election] should be impeached by a trifling seven members of the central government agency,” while some others — alluding to President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) record-low approval ratings of 9.2 percent — ridiculed the decision as “a wonder of the world” in that “a mayor topping the list of best-performing local government heads is impeached, but a president with the lowest approval ratings is not.”
Skeptics allege the impeachment was a highly politicized decision and wonder whether the Control Yuan is engaging in “selective investigation” given that it appears “rather efficient” in its probe of the Lai case, while the judicial authorities appear to be dragging their feet in their investigation of the bribery cases involving Lee.
In light of various other prominent issues of alleged administrative negligence, such as the Color Play Asia fire at the Formosa Fun Coast (八仙海岸) in New Taipei City, the financial problems of the Miaoli County Government and the controversy over the Ministry of Education’s adjustments to the high-school social studies guidelines, many cannot help but wonder whether the Control Yuan is only interested in probing pan-green camp officials.
This brings to mind other controversial rulings — for instance, the Control Yuan’s failure to impeach former prosecutor-general Huang Shih-ming (黃世銘) for allegedly leaking details of an ongoing investigation to Ma, as well as its decision not to impeach former Keelung mayor Chang Tong-rong (張通榮) after he was convicted of influence peddling.
Lai’s case is a matter of local politics in which Lai has resorted to boycotting council sessions as a stand against the “black gold politics” that are rampant in local politics.
The Control Yuan is responsible for monitoring the government’s actions and censuring public officials and public agencies for illegal or inappropriate behavior, but the conflict between the Tainan City Government and the Tainan City Council ought not be simply treated as a violation of the Local Government Act and legislative regulations.
The stalemate between the city council and the city government is a conflict between the legislative and the executive branches and ought instead to be tackled by the administrative judiciary.
Former Control Yuan president Wang Chien-shien (王建煊) once said that the Control Yuan might as well be shut down because it is “unable to perform its purpose of serving justice,” while former minister of health Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) said that it was a key factor in creating chaos in Taiwan.
The Control Yuan’s decision to impeach Lai serves only to foster the perception that it is only pursuing cases involving pan-green politicians.
If the watchdog cannot fulfill its constitutional duties by being an impartial arbiter, it should be scrapped. Its demise is unlikely to be mourned.
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