The performance of the recently concluded seventh Legislative Yuan showed that a Chinese Nationalist Party-dominated (KMT) political scene in the past four years had failed to bring fruitful results to Taiwanese, analysts told a forum in Taipei yesterday.
The choice of voters to give the KMT consecutive landslide wins in the legislative elections in January 2008 and the presidential election two months later was a “bold gamble,” Lo Cheng-chung (羅承宗), a researcher at Taiwan Brain Trust, told the forum organized by the think tank about the legislature’s performance.
The KMT won 81 of 113 legislative seats, while President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) won 58 percent of the total votes in the presidential election.
However, the gamble did not pay off because the public had to pay the price of lack of checks and balances in government, instead of enjoying the efficiency and achievement of single-party dominance, Lo said.
Legislators trimmed just 0.007 percent from the 2012 central government budget, he said, a clear sign that it has failed to do its job because government agencies are known for inflating their budgets.
A total of 624 pieces of legislation were passed in four years in the session that ended on Dec. 14, with an annual average of 156, and some of those passed were highly controversial, such as the Land Expropriation Act (土地徵收條例) and the Judges’ Act (法官法), said Ku Chung-hwa (顧忠華) of the Citizen Congress Watch.
“The seventh legislature has been disappointing compared with previous legislatures in terms of quality and quantity of legislation screening,” Ku said, adding that each legislator is receiving a monthly salary of NT$180,000 and research fee of NT$500,000 to do more than what they did.
“The biggest problem for the legislature now is that it is not a domain for discussions of public policies, but a legislative bureau of the KMT,” Ku said.
People had great expectations after the electoral system underwent significant changes in 2007, with the introduction of the “single-district, two votes” system, and the number of lawmakers was dramatically trimmed from 225 to 113, which was expected to improve legislative efficiency and professionalism.
However, the results have been almost completely the opposite of what had been promised, former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Lin Cho-shui (林濁水) said.
However, the new system marginalized smaller parties, encouraged partisanship and dramatically increased the power of each legislator, Lin said.
Lin has proposed a two-phase overhaul aimed at improving legislative efficiency and changing the legislative electoral system. The proposal has been approved by the DPP as its main demand to appeal for voter support in next month’s legislative elections.
While the DPP may have to review why it supported the move to halve the number of lawmakers, it deserved recognition for its effort in drafting a number of bills, most of which were later blocked by the KMT in committees.
Experience shows that legislative reform cannot be achieved until the KMT loses its status as the majority party, Lin said.
A strong continental cold air mass is to bring pollutants to Taiwan from tomorrow, the Ministry of Environment said today, as it issued an “orange” air quality alert for most of the country. All of Taiwan except for Hualien and Taitung counties is to be under an “orange” air quality alert tomorrow, indicating air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. In China, areas from Shandong to Shanghai have been enveloped in haze since Saturday, the ministry said in a news release. Yesterday, hourly concentrations of PM2.5 in these areas ranged from 65 to 160 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and pollutants were
Taiwan’s armed forces have established response protocols for a wide range of sudden contingencies, including the “Wan Chun Plan” to protect the head of state, the Ministry of Defense (MND) said today. After US President Donald Trump on Saturday launched a series of airstrikes in Venezuela and kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, concerns have been raised as to whether China would launch a similar “decapitation strike” on Taiwan. The armed forces regularly coordinate with relevant agencies and practice drills to ensure preparedness for a wide range of scenarios, Vice Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) told reporters before a
EVA Airways on Saturday said that it had suspended a pilot and opened an investigation after he allegedly lost his temper and punched the first officer several times as their plane was taxiing before takeoff at Los Angeles International Airport. According to a report published on Thursday by The Reporter, the incident occurred after the flight’s Malaysian first officer tried to warn the Taiwanese pilot, surnamed Wen (文), that he was taxiing faster than the speed limit of 30 knots (55.6kph). After alerting the pilot several times without response, the first officer manually applied the brakes in accordance with standard operating
NOT AN OPENING: Trump’s violation of international law does not affect China’s consideration in attacking Taiwan; Beijing lacks capability, not precedent, an official said Taiwanese officials see the US’ capture of the president of Venezuela as a powerful deterrent to Beijing’s aggression and a timely reminder of the US’ ability to defeat militaries equipped with Chinese-made weapons. The strikes that toppled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro signaled to authoritarian leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), US President Donald Trump’s willingness to use military might for international affairs core to US interests, one senior official in Taipei’s security circle said. That reassured Taiwan, the person said. Taipei has also dismissed the idea that Trump’s apparent violation of international law could embolden Beijing, said the official, who was not
RSS