"No more blindfolds! We want a transparent legislature," students representing schools and student organizations shouted yesterday as they demonstrated in front of the legislature.
"We are here to demand public access to the video-on-demand [VOD] system, so that everyone can monitor the legislature from home," Lin Pin-chun (林品君), president of Citizen Congress Watch’s (CCW) youth caucus and a sophomore at National Taiwan University (NTU) told a press conference.
Although legislative committee meetings are recorded and broadcast live online through the VOD system, it can only be viewed from within the legislature.
“As a concerned citizen, I only see lawmakers when their physical or verbal clashes are broadcast on TV — I want to know what they’re doing the rest of the time,” another NTU student, Lee Shao-tang (李紹唐) said.
However, current restrictions make their wishes impossible.
“The time allowed for sitting on the balcony to hear the general assembly meeting is limited to 30 minutes per person,” said Ho Tsung-hsun (何宗勳), executive director of the CCW. “As for committee meetings, you must have the convener’s permission to be allowed into the meeting room.”
In fact, having voters monitor legislative meetings may be very positive for the lawmakers, Lin said.
“While most of the public have a bad impression of legislators, our volunteers who have actually observed legislative meetings told us that there are quite a few hard-working lawmakers,” Lin told the reporters. “They just don’t get any media exposure.”
If everyone could access the VOD system from home and watch legislative meetings, “voters would know who the good legislators are so that they can vote for them at the next election,” she said.
Since it was launched a week ago, 300 people have signed a petition calling for an opening of the legislative VOD system. Out of all 113 legislators, more than 80 have expressed support for the idea, Lin said.
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