President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) pledged yesterday that the second phase of constitutional reforms will be carried out according to the "deliberative democracy" concept of facilitating extensive citizen participation in the process.
Chen was speaking to a foreign delegation visiting Taiwan for an international conference on constitutional re-engineering, which has been organized by a Presidential Office panel promoting constitutional reforms.
Chen said the country achieved the first phase of its constitutional reforms on June 7, by abolishing the National Assembly to allow for public referendums on future constitutional amendments, which will give the people the final say in any proposed amendments.
According to Chen, Taiwan may appear to have practiced constitutional democracy for more than 50 years, but in reality, the system has only been in practice for around 20 years, because of the 38-year martial law period which followed soon after the Republic of China Constitution was promulgated in 1947.
Although seven rounds of constitutional reforms have been launched over the past 14 years, people are still not satisfied with the results, he claimed.
Chen noted that most of the earlier reforms were motivated by politics and not open to public participation.
As a result of such changes, the constitutional system in Taiwan appears extremely "outlandish," Chen claimed. He noted that the system is neither a presidential system, semi-presidential system nor a parliamentary system, a situation that he said has led to the current political instability in the country.
Therefore, he stressed, the second phase reform is necessary in order to maintain national competitiveness, and the concept of deliberative democracy should be employed in the next round of reform to realize "true democracy."
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
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