The New Power Party (NPP) yesterday submitted proposed amendments to the three laws covering the Legislative Yuan as part of its declared push to make the legislature more transparent, ensure the impartiality of the legislative speaker and give the legislature investigation powers.
The proposals cover the Organic Act of the Legislative Yuan (立法院組織法), the Act Governing the Exercise of Legislative Power (立法院職權行使法) and the Rules of Procedure of the Legislative Yuan (立法院議事規則).
NPP Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said the legislature can only hold public hearings and not committee hearings, but legislative committees should be empowered to launch investigations as part of their brief to provide governmental oversight.
The results of the investigations should then be reported in committee hearings, with the legislature given the ability to summon individuals to testify and provide data, Huang said.
The legislature at present is a mixed institution, since it has held the powers of the National Assembly since 2005 after the passage of constitutional amendments temporarily freezing the assembly and transferring more than half of its powers to the Legislative Yuan.
NPP Legislator Hung Tzu-yung (洪慈庸) said the party’s insistence on transparency was the driving force behind the proposals.
The party also wants to make party caucus negotiations completely open affairs by allowing the media and interested citizens to attend when the Legislative Yuan is in session, Hung said.
The proposed changes to the Act Governing the Exercise of Legislative Power aim to give the legislature the ability to launch investigations, Hung said, citing the legislative body’s ineffectiveness in the case of the death of her brother, army Corporal Hung Chung-chiu (洪仲丘), in 2013.
He died of organ failure brought on by heatstroke just three days before his mandatory military service was up, allegedly after bullying and mistreatment by his superiors.
As the Legislative Yuan did not have investigative powers, lawmakers were unable to look into the conscript’s death and could only summon Ministry of National Defense officials to a legislative session for questioning, Hung Tzu-yung said.
The ministry’s handling of requests for surveillance camera video recordings of the conscript’s unit’s training session on July 1 and from the detention facility where he had been confined before his collapse on July 3 — with an 80-minute section of the training session video reportedly being blank because the cameras allegedly stopped working and that because there were no cameras in the area where he fell ill — added fuel to the public outrage over the 23-year-old’s death on July 4.
The NPP has proposed that if government officials or private citizens are summoned to testify before a legislature committee, they cannot refuse to do so without a legitimate reason, under threat of having the committee request the Control Yuan open an inquiry on them or a fine.
Summoned individuals must provide relevant materials and be truthful in their testimony, or face a prison sentence of up to one year and a fine of up to NT$1 million (US$29,864), Hung Tzu-yung said.
Huang said the proposed amendment would ensure that the legislature is fully informed before it makes a decision on an issue.
A legislative speaker that is above the partisan fray is also crucial, which is why the NPP caucus wants to amend the regulations government the election of a speaker to make it an open ballot, and to require the speaker and deputy speaker not to be involved in the activities of their political parties and be barred from holding party positions.
NPP Legislator Kawlo Iyun Pacidal, an Amis, said that for the legislature to become more transparent, it must consider improving its hardware infrastructure, noting that its servers often slow down or “stutter” when more than 300 people try to watch the direct online broadcast of legislative sessions.
It is important that the public is able to see and hear what is going on in the legislature, she said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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