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Watchdog to tweak lawmaker test

The Citizens Congress Watch (CCW) yesterday invited all citizens above the age of 18, including academics, political analysts and representatives from non-governmental organizations (NGOs), to take part in the group’s lawmaker evaluation at the end of next month.

“We feel that traditional evaluations of lawmakers’ performances — which are carried out only by academics — are too elitist,” CCW executive director Ho Tsung-hsun (何宗勳) told the Taipei Times in a telephone interview.

“Hence, other than the usual academics, we’ll also invite political analysts, media representatives and NGOs, as well as ordinary citizens, to participate in our evaluation process,” Ho said.

“We think that ordinary citizens, as voters, are actually the most qualified to assess lawmakers’ performance,” he said.

Ho said the group intends to have 40 members of the public on the 120-member evaluation team.

The team will meet on Aug. 31 to go through the legislature’s meeting and bill proposal records, then assign scores to each legislator following discussions, Ho said.

“We will not only evaluate their performance based on attendance and proposal records, but also examine whether the bills they proposed were really related to public welfare,” he said.

“They will score points if they make good proposals, highlight government scandals or bad policies,” he said.

“On the other hand, they’ll have points deducted if they humiliate others, make false accusations or behave inappropriately,” Ho said.

After the evaluation, the CCW plans to present awards to lawmakers with outstanding performances, he said.

“We will release an evaluation report after each legislative session. At the end of their term, we will publish a final report and will ask political parties not to nominate those with the lowest scores,” he said.

The CCW will set separate standards for caucus whips and the legislative speaker.

“Caucus whips will be evaluated on whether they do a good job communicating [with other caucuses or within the caucus], or if the caucus fulfills its promises under the whip’s leadership. As for the speaker, he will be evaluated on whether he does his job neutrally,” Ho said.
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