Print

Mail

wiki links

Emergency law is easily abused, say DPP legislators

Originally designed to speed up reconstruction after the 921 earthquake, the emergency order has been misused by administrative authorities, DPP lawmakers said yesterday.

Four days after the quake struck, President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) issued an emergency decree, which supersedes a raft of legislation, in order to increase administrative efficiency and rebuild quickly.

There have been worries that the order is vague and gives authorities too much power.

The excessive exercise of administrative power prompted attacks from DPP lawmakers yesterday who feared the legislature would not have a say on drafting bylaws.

"It's a shameless way of expanding administrative power, or even worse, a way of encouraging corruption," said Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄), a DPP legislator.

"With a power of approval, the legislature at least had a say on the content of the emergency order and could maintain the integrity of it. But our legislative power is significantly undermined as the executive authorities now can cover whatever they want in the bylaws [of the order]."

Chang, along with other DPP lawmakers, also accused the KMT of using bylaws for its own political ends. With so many laws suspended by the emergency order, the KMT could increase its control to the extent it would be above the law, they said.

"It is well known that the KMT has had close connections with local factions. At least before, we could prevent misuse of power by rule of law. But now they can just use the emergency order to avoid checks by the legislature," DPP lawmaker Lin Chung-cheng (林忠正) said.

"To cite one case, a multi-billion-dollar bidding project used to have to pass stages of assessments under relevant bidding regulations. But the emergency order makes it convenient for corrupt officials to skip the assessments and make decisions favorable to particular bidders," Lin said.
This story has been viewed 2379 times.