The legislature yesterday questioned six Control Yuan nominees and is to question the other five tomorrow.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Lin Wei-chou (林為洲) said that even though the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) wants to abolish the institution, the party is nominating new members, and there is no legitimacy behind the nominations, the Central News Agency reported.
The standard of legislators is such that they even confuse abolishing the Control Yuan with filling vacant seats.
IMPARTIALITY
Even if the Control Yuan were to be abolished, that would only happen with the next legislature, which is to be elected in 2020.
In addition, all members are friendly to former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), so when Lin said it was questionable if nominee Chen Shih-meng (陳師孟) could remain impartial, the follow-up question should have been how the incumbent members could maintain their impartiality. Filling the vacant seats is just a way to weaken the influence of Ma’s supporters.
THE OPTIONS
The threshold for a referendum to approve a constitutional amendment stated in Article 12 in the additional articles of the Constitution is too high, which in practice makes abolishing the Control Yuan impossible, while Article 2 of the Referendum Act (公民投票法) does not give the public the right to initiate referendums, so a constitutional referendum is out of the question.
It is clear that the Control Yuan will not be abolished, but it can be “suspended.” During Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) presidency, the Control Yuan was effectively suspended for four years by the KMT and the People First Party, giving the DPP government precedence to suspend the institution.
However, its suspension had no effect on the workings of the constitutional system, because the body’s functions had already been taken over by other institutions. It is meant to supervise the government, but that function was taken over by the legislature a long time ago.
HISTORY
In a constitutional draft from 1936, the National Assembly was to represent the public in electing legislators, while the president would function as head of the executive branch.
The president’s right of reconsideration gives the president veto power, making the system a standard presidential system, but following the ideals of Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙), the power to oversee the executive branch was given to the Control Yuan rather than the legislature.
Because the Legislative Yuan did not have the power to oversee the government, the political consultative conference was concerned that the system would result in a strong president and a weak legislature.
The constitution that was promulgated in 1947 therefore added the right of interpellation and the right to approve the premier to the legislature’s powers.
IGNORED
The legislature’s interpellation power is greater than that of the Control Yuan, which has lost its functionality. For example, when it issued a correction to the provincial government for hiring former Taiwan Provincial Government secretary for foreign affairs Kuo Kuan-ying (郭冠英), it was all but ignored.
Freezing the Control Yuan would not affect the workings of the constitutional system at all.
Chen Mao-hsiung is a retired National Sun Yat-sen University professor and chairman of the Society for the Promotion of Taiwanese Security.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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