Sun, Sep 14, 2014 page3

• Tsai urges representative legislature

  ‘SELF-SALVATION’ ANNIVERSARY: On the 50th anniversary of the anti-Chiang Kai-shek manifesto, Tsai also urged revisions to the Referendum Act to allow direct democracy

  • By Loa Iok-sin / Staff reporter
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  Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday called for a change in the legislative system to break what she called the monopoly of large political parties and a change in the Referendum Act (公民投票法) to allow more direct democracy, as she attributed the 23-day occupation of the legislative floor earlier this year to a failure of representative democracy.

  “For those who are concerned about the development of democracy, this year is a very exciting year, and if we put the year in Taiwan’s history of democratic development, it’s also a turning point, for the Sunflower movement that occurred in March shocked not only Taiwanese society, but also the international community,” Tsai said during a keynote speech at a conference in Taipei marking the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Formosan Self-Salvation.

  “I am more than glad to see the courage that the youth in Taiwan demonstrated when the values of democracy are being trampled, it’s the same courage as when Peng Ming-min (彭明敏) and his two students drafted the declaration 50 years ago,” she said.

  Tsai was referring to the manifesto drafted by Peng, who was a political science professor at National Taiwan University at the time, and two of his two students, Hsieh Tsung-min (謝聰敏) and Wei Ting-chao (魏廷朝), that aimed to mobilize Taiwanese to overthrow Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and his Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime in September 1964.

  Secret agents discovered their actions and arrested the three a day before they were to distribute copies of the declaration; they were later prosecuted and imprisoned.

  Due to pressure from human rights advocacy groups worldwide, including Amnesty International, Chiang granted amnesty to Peng in 1965, and placed him under house arrest.

  In 1970, Peng fled Taiwan and sought political asylum in Sweden. He later lived in exile in the US until November 1992.

  Tsai said that although the political environment has improved considerably since the time when the declaration was drafted, democracy in Taiwan still faces obstacles, such as the failure of the legislature to represent the public.

  “In recent years, we have often seen the government making policy decisions that go against the opinion of the majority of the people, for example, the government’s decision on the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant and the cross-strait services trade agreement,” she said.

  “The legislature is in the hands of the majority party, and often, it’s the will of the ruling party triumphing over the people’s will,” she said.

  “When the party’s will is more important than the people’s will, we know there’s something wrong with our representative democracy,” she added.

  Therefore, Tsai proposed to revise the Constitution to change the legislative system that she said allows only large political parties to survive, so that “the number of seats and its composition could better reflect social diversity.”

  She also urged revisions to the Referendum Act, which has high thresholds before a referendum proposal can make it to voting booths, to facilitate direct democracy.

  On the economy, Tsai said that while it is difficult to ignore China as an economic partner, over-dependency on China could precipitate a crisis, and that Taiwan should boost domestic consumption while developing more diverse international trade relations.
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