New Power Party (NPP) legislative candidates yesterday castigated “insincere” Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) proposals for reforming the Legislative Yuan, calling for meaningful restrictions on the legal role of cross-caucus negotiations as part of any reform package.
“It is fundamentally about manipulating the election and cheating votes out of people,” said NPP legislative candidate Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智), adding that the KMT’s legislative caucus had previously repeatedly rejected reforms similar to those proposed by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) last week.
Chiu’s campaign manager, Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷), a prominent leader in last year’s Sunflower movement, called proposals by Wang “fake” and “non-democratic.”
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Wang last week called for drafting new legislation to clearly spell out committee hearing procedures along with other changes, calling on the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to present a competing proposal by Thursday, at the same inviting Chen and fellow Sunflower leader Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) to meet and discuss legislative reform.
Chiu said Wang’s proposal would further increase the power of the legislative speaker and the different party caucus whips, to whom it would dedicate sole power to call cross-caucus negotiations, removing current legal provision allowing individual legislators to use a petition drive to initiate negotiations.
“Our main criticism of cross-caucus negotiations is that they are extremely authoritarian — concentrating power in the hands of a few, while diluting the power of individual legislators to exercise their legislative authority,” he said, adding that removing individual legislators power to call talks would be “taking a step in the wrong direction.”
Hsu Wei-chun (徐偉群), a professor of law at Chung Yuan University, said that under current rules, any results of cross-caucus negotiations are sent directly the legislative floor where they are passed automatically, unless eight or more legislators sign a petition requiring a vote. Speeches about the results can be made from the legislative floor only by party representatives designated by party leaders, he said.
Citizen’s Congress Watch executive director Chang Hung-lin (張宏林) said the secrecy of cross-caucus negotiations allows legislators to avoid taking a stance on controversial legislation, adding that its existence also discouraged legislators from investing time in budget reviews.
“Every time you work hard to conduct a review, if there is any disagreement, then a cross-caucus negotiation will be called — so what is the point of working hard to review every budget item? Our budget review process has already degenerated into cross-board cuts decided via cross-caucus negotiations,” he said.
Chiu called for use of cross-caucus negotiations to be limited to parliamentary procedure, such as agenda setting, rather than the specific content of bills.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
Taiwan is doing everything it can to prevent a military conflict with China, including building up asymmetric defense capabilities and fortifying public resilience, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in a recent interview. “Everything we are doing is to prevent a conflict from happening, whether it is 2027 or before that or beyond that,” Hsiao told American podcaster Shawn Ryan of the Shawn Ryan Show. She was referring to a timeline cited by several US military and intelligence officials, who said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take military action against Taiwan
RSS