Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) yesterday said he is in favor of lowering the threshold for constitutional amendments and the voting age, and suggested that a referendum on whether the Constitution should be amended to replace the current semi-presidential system of government with a parliamentary system be staged alongside next year’s presidential election.
Lee made the remarks in a speech, titled “Constitutional reform is Taiwan’s only way out,” he delivered to the Legislative Yuan Press Club.
Calls from across party lines and from many civic groups for constitutional changes point to a rare opportunity to unite a divided public and put reform into practice, he said.
Photo: CNA
Lee proposed a two-stage reformation process. The first stage should include reducing the threshold for constitutional reform, rectifying the Referendum Act (公民投票法) and lowering the voting age to 18 — among other proposed amendments. A referendum on the draft amendments could then be held to seek public endorsement.
The current threshold for amending the Constitution requires the support of one-quarter of the Legislative Yuan to put forward an amendment, three-quarters of the legislators to attend a meeting to deliberate the proposed amendment and then three-quarters of the attendees to approve the proposal.
If approved by lawmakers, the proposed amendment must be put to a referendum, which requires half of the entire electorate to vote in favor for it to be considered passed.
In terms of changing Taiwan’s government structure, Lee said the number of Legislative Yuan seats must be increased and the legislative electoral system be overhauled, while clear lines of accountability between the president and premier must be drawn.
The president should be entitled to direct national defense and foreign affairs, including cross-strait relations, under the supervision of the legislature, Lee said.
He called for the legislators to pass draft amendments for such reforms in the first half of this year so that the proposals could then be put to a referendum next year to seek a public mandate.
The former president said he would personally facilitate talks between Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) and Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) after the Lunar New Year holidays, as well as the leaders of other parties, to set out a timetable for constitutional reform.
Chu and Tsai are responsible for laying out specific claims to constitutional reform to bring about new changes, rather than taking advantage of the situation to further their political ambitions, Lee said.
LIMITS: While China increases military pressure on Taiwan and expands its use of cognitive warfare, it is unwilling to target tech supply chains, the report said US and Taiwan military officials have warned that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could implement a blockade within “a matter of hours” and need only “minimal conversion time” prior to an attack on Taiwan, a report released on Tuesday by the US Senate’s China Economic and Security Review Commission said. “While there is no indication that China is planning an imminent attack, the United States and its allies and partners can no longer assume that a Taiwan contingency is a distant possibility for which they would have ample time to prepare,” it said. The commission made the comments in its annual
DETERMINATION: Beijing’s actions toward Tokyo have drawn international attention, but would likely bolster regional coordination and defense networks, the report said Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration is likely to prioritize security reforms and deterrence in the face of recent “hybrid” threats from China, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said. The bureau made the assessment in a written report to the Legislative Yuan ahead of an oral report and questions-and-answers session at the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The key points of Japan’s security reforms would be to reinforce security cooperation with the US, including enhancing defense deployment in the first island chain, pushing forward the integrated command and operations of the Japan Self-Defense Forces and US Forces Japan, as
IN THE NATIONAL INTEREST: Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu said the strengthening of military facilities would help to maintain security in the Taiwan Strait Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi, visiting a military base close to Taiwan, said plans to deploy missiles to the post would move forward as tensions smolder between Tokyo and Beijing. “The deployment can help lower the chance of an armed attack on our country,” Koizumi told reporters on Sunday as he wrapped up his first trip to the base on the southern Japanese island of Yonaguni. “The view that it will heighten regional tensions is not accurate.” Former Japanese minister of defense Gen Nakatani in January said that Tokyo wanted to base Type 03 Chu-SAM missiles on Yonaguni, but little progress
NO CHANGES: A Japanese spokesperson said that Tokyo remains consistent and open for dialogue, while Beijing has canceled diplomatic engagements A Japanese official blasted China’s claims that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has altered Japan’s position on a Taiwan crisis as “entirely baseless,” calling for more dialogue to stop ties between Asia’s top economies from spiraling. China vowed to take resolute self-defense against Japan if it “dared to intervene militarily in the Taiwan Strait” in a letter delivered Friday to the UN. “I’m aware of this letter,” said Maki Kobayashi, a senior Japanese government spokeswoman. “The claim our country has altered its position is entirely baseless,” she said on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Johannesburg on Saturday. The Chinese Ministry
RSS