Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) yesterday said he would propose a constitutional amendment to abolish the Control Yuan, saying it was time to change the current system of government with its five branches.
“Given the high threshold for a constitutional amendment to pass, [abolishing the Control Yuan] would be difficult, but I’m hoping that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers would support the proposal to resolve the nation’s biggest problem,” Lee told a news conference.
“The biggest problem of this country is that all branches [of government] have come to a standstill,” he said, blaming it on a “flawed” system of government.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
Lee said he has always advocated changing the five branches of government as provided in the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution to a Western-style three-power system by abolishing the Control Yuan and the Examination Yuan, leaving only the Executive Yuan, the Legislative Yuan and the Judicial Yuan.
ROC founding father Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙) added the two traditional Chinese government branches to serve as a watchdog and supervise civil service examinations.
Sun’s design has created ambiguity of authority and responsibility among the different branches, Lee said, adding that the recent controversies surrounding the infighting at the Control Yuan has not helped either.
He was referring to the Control Yuan’s veto of the impeachment of Keelung Mayor Chang Tong-rong (張通榮), who has been convicted of influence peddling and interfering with police matters when he demanded that a woman detained for drunk driving be released, and the war of rhetoric between Control Yuan President Wang Chien-hsien (王建煊) and Control Yuan members.
Lee proposed transferring the rights of impeachment and censure to the Legislative Yuan, with three ombudsmen in charge of government monitoring, while the right of audit could be transferred either to an independent agency or a department of the Legislative Yuan.
Lee also recommended authorizing the Legislative Yuan, which currently only has the right of document request, with the right of investigation so that the legislative branch could handle all cases of inappropriate government practices with full authority.
As for public servants’ assets declaration, the task could be handled by the Agency Against Corruption at the Ministry of Justice, he said.
The proposal should have no problem passing the first phase, which requires the signatures of more than a quarter, or 29, of the 113-member legislature to launch the proposal. The next stage may be more difficult, as the proposal has to win the votes of more than three-quarters of the attendees in a legislative plenary before being sent to a national referendum.
DPP Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) endorsed the proposal and said that concerns raised by several academics and KMT lawmakers about the amendment were unnecessary.
“Yes, we are trying to ‘overthrow Sun Yat-sen’s legacy’ like they said, but please be reminded that the same things had been said when the National Assembly was abolished. Did its abolition cause political instability?” Chen said.
Chen also played down the possibility that the three-power system would make the legislature a “constitutional monster” with too much power.
On Monday, the Taiwan Solidarity Union caucus also told a press conference that it would propose an amendment in the next legislative session to abolish the Control Yuan.
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
Both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a political foundation based on the “1992 consensus” and opposition to Taiwanese independence, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today said during her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Both sides of the Strait should plan and build institutionalized and sustainable mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation based on that foundation to make peaceful development across the Strait irreversible, she said. Peace is a shared moral value across the Strait, and both sides should move beyond political confrontation to seek institutionalized solutions to prevent war, she said. Mutually beneficial cross-strait relations are what the
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
RSS