A private group is set to launch a lobbying effort this week to solicit support from legislators for its proposed constitutional amendments, which would adopt a parliamentary system and lower the threshold for constitutional revisions.
Jou Yi-cheng (
Jou said that he realized how difficult it is to pass constitutional reforms but the issue was too important to give up.
"It is still worth a try even if there is only a 1 percent chance of success," he said.
It requires three-quarters of the legislators to be present and the consent of three-quarters of those who are present to pass constitutional amendments at the plenary legislative meeting, pending a public referendum.
Jou said his group's proposal was endorsed by people across party lines. They all agreed the best course of action is to amend the Constitution and then put it to a popular vote, rather than writing a new constitution.
They also agreed to keep the preamble intact to prevent controversy, change the government system to parliamentary system, adopt a German style "one district, two-votes" system for legislative elections and lower the threshold for constitutional amendments.
Chen Yao-chang (陳耀昌), former convener of Vice President Annette Lu's (呂秀蓮) medical team, said that this year is key in terms of pushing for constitutional reform because it would be difficult to do so during the 2012 presidential election when the next president will be preoccupied with re-election.
Blaming the constitutional system for political infighting and politicians' "imbecilic decision-making," Chen Yao-chang said that only constitutional reform can offer the country hope.
George Chang (張燦鍙), chairman of the Taiwan Culture Foundation, said that the ruling and opposition parties must come to a consensus on constitutional reform and realize that the Constitution has many flaws.
Chang said that he was all for steering away from changing controversial clauses in the Constitution, but it is inevitable that the amendment issue will be addressed in the future.
To avoid controversy, the proposal left the preamble intact and redefined the now abolished National Assembly as "people's right to exercise those of election, recall, initiation and referendum." The power of the president would be substantially reduced as the president would be elected by the legislature. The legislative speaker would take over the presidency if the president could not perform his or her duties. The position of vice president would be abolished.
The draft proposes a three-branch government. The Legislative Yuan would have 158 seats and have the right to form an investigation committee. The Judicial Yuan would be composed of 15 Grand Justices, one of whom would be nominated by the prime minister as the head of the Judicial Yuan, with the legislature's approval.
The proposal recommends a parliamentary system where legislators can double as Cabinet officials. The legislature would have the ability to cast a no-confidence vote against the prime minister. It would require the approval of a simple majority of the legislature to pass such a vote, and the prime minister would have to lead the Cabinet officials to resign within 10 days.
The ousted prime minister would either ask the president to nominate a new successor, who must obtain the approval of the legislature, or ask the president to dismiss the legislature and call a snap election within 60 days.
To make constitutional reform easier, the draft proposed to lower the threshold for constitutional amendments from three-quarters of legislators to two-thirds, pending a public referendum. It would still require the consent of three- quarters of legislators to change the territorial boundaries, pending a popular vote.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard