Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday urged lawmakers to pay more attention to civil rights issues, as the Legislative Yuan is scheduled to start a constitutional reform process today, adding that failure is not an option for the reform.
Although the constitutional reform process would not be the first time that the Constitution is amended, Tsai said on Facebook that she has higher expectations this time, since it is the first time that the public has the opportunity to express its concerns — via 10 public hearings held prior to the beginning of the process.
“In the past, constitutional reforms have been done by political parties and political elites, and thus the issues discussed might not be what the public was really concerned about,” she said, adding that, this time, reforms were initiated by the public during the Sunflower movement last year, making it a rare case that shows the progress in Taiwan’s democracy.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
“Also, constitutional reforms in the past have focused mostly on revising the political system, while overlooking human rights,” Tsai said. “However, the Constitution must ‘live with the people,’ and therefore the DPP’s amendment proposals this time would touch on civil rights issues, including labor rights, the environment and the right to education as our response to the most progressive contemporary human rights values.”
The constitutional reforms would also focus on encouraging public participation in politics, including amendments to lower the voting age from 20 to 18, allowing people over the age of 20 to become candidates, and lowering the thresholds for party representation in the legislature and amending the Constitution, Tsai said.
“[The constitutional reform this time] would be an important milestone on Taiwan’s progress in democracy, and therefore failure is not an option,” Tsai said.
In other news, as the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is still struggling to find its best candidate for next year’s presidential election, Tsai said that the identity of her future rival is irrelevant.
“I cannot make comments or judgement on something within the KMT,” Tsai said in response to reporters’ questions for comment on KMT Chairman Eric Chu’s (朱立倫) decision not to run in the presidential election.
“Taiwanese are actually more concerned about whether the KMT is listening to what they have to say, so whatever happens during the KMT’s nomination process is its own business. What is more important is for them to listen to public opinion,” she said.
Tsai also lauded student activists as a key force pushing Taiwan forward after viewing The Last Insurrection (末代叛亂犯), a documentary that recounts the story of four young men who were charged with sedition in 1991 because of their participation in social movements or studying Taiwan’s history.
The arrests triggered student strikes nationwide, and after only nine days, the Act for the Control and Punishment of Rebellion (懲治叛亂條例) was abolished, and the four were released.
“In the course of history, some people are leaders, while others are followers, but followers may become leaders, and vice versa,” Tsai said. “However, all of them have one common objective: That generation after generation, Taiwan becomes more free, more democratic and more belonging to Taiwanese.”
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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