The public is closely watching how President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration delivers on her promises of political reform — namely the implementation of the transitional justice concept, reforms to the Legislative Yuan and increasing government efficiency.
The administration should aim for high standards when pushing the reforms, as it would speed up Taiwan’s democratization. These include ensuring greater transparency and open supervision of the Legislative Yuan via legal amendments, as well as promoting reforms that would require amending the Constitution.
Those amendments are aimed at establishing the kind of system the central government will adopt and eliminate long-standing problems by clarifying the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches and abolishing the Examination and Control yuans.
However, for the government to truly become more efficient, it must start with the most vital element — the civil servants themselves. Whether the administration is able to establish a system to rank civil servants and ensure such jobs are no longer seen as a guarantee of an “iron rice bowl” will be key.
As for the implementation of the concept of transitional justice, it is a race against time and the Tsai administration must act fast to avoid a situation where calls to implement transitional justice seem to be more a slogan than an actual accomplishment.
Many of the files of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime during the White Terror era have either been lost or were shredded, increasing the difficulty of determining the truth and reconstructing history.
The White Terror era refers to the repression that began after the 228 Incident in 1947, when an anti-government uprising was violently suppressed by the then-KMT government. The government later declared martial law. Historians estimate that between 10,000 and 30,000 people were killed.
Implementation of transitional justice also pertains to the KMT’s assets. Critics have labeled the KMT’s assets as “ill-gotten” because the party took many of them from the Japanese colonial government, private businesses and individuals when it took control of Taiwan in the late 1940s.
However, the KMT disputes the “ill-gotten assets” description, saying that all of its assets were acquired legally. Resolving the issue has been made more difficult by the KMT’s reported acceleration of its efforts to liquidate these assets.
Sources have said that Tsai would personally oversee the implementation by setting up a “Truth and Reconciliation Committee” in the Presidential Office to act in an advisory capacity, while the “Promotion of Transitional Justice Committee” at the Executive Yuan would be the group that implements the reforms.
The administration faces major difficulties in undertaking its proposed reforms, but these will be the best test of Tsai’s determination to push through reforms.
Translated by Jake Chung
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