Presidential Office names legal guru to head new unit

Former deputy minister of the Civil Service Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) has been tapped to head the Constitutional Reform Office which the Presidential Office had established in a bid to push forward its call for a new round of constitutional reforms.

The primary function of the office, which is slated to start operation on the first of next month, is to better inform the public on constitutional issues and educate them on how they can participate in the reform process, a senior Presidential Office official said yesterday.

"It is our hope that, via the operation of this office, we can spread the seeds of constitutional reform to all corners [of Taiwan] to allow broad participation from all sectors of the public to discuss the issues surrounding constitutional reforms," Presidential Office Secretary-General Yu Shyi-kun said yesterday.

Commenting on Lee's creativity and implementation skills as well as his experience from having served as deputy minister of the Civil Service and deputy mayor of Chiayi City, Yu spoke of confidence in Lee's ability to head the office.

Lee, son of Ketagalan Academy president Lee Hung-hsi (李鴻禧), is also a renowned academic with expertise in constitutional law.

Noting the main function of the office will be to inspire a public debate on constitutional amendment proposals and enhance public awareness of the topics, Yu stressed that it will remain neutral on constitutional issues.

"The new office is not expected to come up with any concrete `second-phase' constitutional amendment proposals in the initial stage. It will instead focus on public education in constitutional matters," Yu said.

Yu said that he, through extensive contacts with private groups, had found that many civic groups and experts are enthusiastic about the issue of constitutional reform and are fully aware of the importance of promoting further constitutional amendments following the "first phase" of constitutional reforms passed earlier last month.

"They all felt the promotion of constitutional reform could serve as a great opportunity to strengthen civil education and consolidate national consciousness," Yu said.

Yu stressed the new round of constitutional reform would not be like previous ones where only a handful of politicians were allowed to make the key decisions in a top-down process with political parties submitting draft versions and negotiating among themselves.

Rather, suggestions will be made from the bottom up, with the people contributing their ideas on issues before the president distills all of them into a final proposal, Yu added.

The office will solicit different opinions on constitutional revisions from across the political spectrum and will not exclude private organizations and city and county governments from the process, he said.

The new unit will have six other staffers, Yu said.