Lawyer Chen Chung-yen (陳重言), a member of the preparatory committee for the National Congress on Judicial Reform, issued a statement yesterday announcing his decision to withdraw from the committee.
Chen is the second member to quit the preparatory committee following National Taiwan University professor Lin Yu-hsiung’s (林鈺雄) resignation on Tuesday.
Chen said that several important discussions had been conducted in a “black box” behind closed doors, that he had been bogged down by the large number issues discussed and that the committee had removed capital punishment from the agenda without giving a reason.
Photo: CNA
Committee members only put forth their views, but were unwilling to communicate and there were proposals that disregarded the nation’s financial difficulties and would increase overheads, Chen said.
False accusations against members of the judiciary were made, while members accused each other of adding or delaying topics, Chen said, adding that blatantly disrespectful comments had been made to committee members, government officials and non-governmental participants.
Chen said he could no longer convince himself to devote his time and knowledge to the ongoing debate, especially as he expected issues already decided in the committee to become the subject of renewed debate in the Legislative Yuan, to which the preparatory committee’s resolutions would only serve as a reference.
Other methods of participation and legislative oversight might prove more fruitful, Chen added.
In response, Minister of Justice Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) said he hoped Chen would reconsider and take the opportunity to engage in discussion with different people, and that labeling the preparatory committee a “black box” discussion was an exaggeration.
However, the preparatory committee should release details about how it reaches its resolutions, Chiu said.
Chen might not have had the time to review all of the meeting transcripts, Chiu said, and there might be a misunderstanding as the production of the transcripts takes a long time to complete.
Division convener Chiu Hei-yuan (瞿海源) said Chen had been a great contributor and called on the lawyer to return to the committee, adding that he should not despair and return for the final few meetings
An issue as important as capital punishment merited more time and room for discussion, he added.
Speaking on behalf of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Presidential Office spokesman Sidney Lin (林鶴明) said that the committee is a necessary platform, and an inevitable process to ensure that all issues of judicial reform are discussed and given deep thought before the government proposes amendments to legislation.
Individual opinions of committee members might differ during the discussions, but that is normal in a democratic society, Lin said, adding that all opinions would be respected.
The committee is about explanation to and dialogue with the public, therefore each issue must be clearly defined and public sentiment must be taken into consideration for the reforms to succeed, Lin said.
The president promised to sit down with the preparatory committee members to discuss making changes to the process, Lin added.
The president wanted to thank all the participants for their contributions, but said the preparatory committee would continue to meet, else the government would be betraying public expectations of reform, Lin said.
Additional reporting by CNA
OVERHAUL NEEDED: The government should improve its agricultural processing capabilities and expand to new markets to limit its reliance on China, an expert said China’s ban on Taiwanese pineapples was “unsurprising,” and Taiwan should have years ago altered its produce export strategies and target customers, experts said. China on Friday abruptly suspended imports of pineapples from Taiwan, saying that it had on multiple occasions discovered “harmful biological entities” on the fruit. Calling it an “unfriendly” move, the Council of Agriculture (COA) said that 99.79 percent of the pineapples sent to China since last year have met China’s import standards. Chiao Chun (焦鈞), the author of Fruits and Politics — A Recollection of Cross-strait Agricultural Interaction Over the Past Decade (水果政治學：兩岸農業交流十年回顧與展望), said that China’s announcement is clearly targeting
The Council of Agriculture yesterday signed a Taiwan-Australia Agricultural Cooperation Implementation clause to open a new export market for the nation’s pineapple crop. The clause is an addition to existing cooperation measures, it said. China on Friday last week abruptly announced that it would suspend pineapple imports from Taiwan starting on Monday, on grounds that it had on multiple occasions discovered “harmful organisms” in shipments of the fruit. The public and private sectors have since joined hands to purchase the local fruit to help the nation’s pineapple farmers. Canberra has requested that all pineapples for export to Australia have their crown buds removed,
DECADES OF INFLUENCE: Over the past 20 years, China has made inroads with Aborigines, funding political campaigns and trips, a legislator said Lawmakers have called on the National Security Bureau to investigate claims of pervasive Chinese influence among Aboriginal communities. Legislators pointed to a surge in communist propaganda and Chinese-funded projects over the past few years, which they say are aimed at infiltrating and buying political influence among Aboriginal communities. “China has for decades carried out wide-ranging ‘united front’ tactics and propaganda campaigns targeting Aborigines,” said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Ying (陳瑩), a member of the Puyuma community in Taitung County. “Now, they are influencing elections for local councilors and village chiefs, offering money for candidates to mount their campaigns, and to
DISSATISFACTION? If the referendums collect more than 700,000 signatures each, they would have gotten the most signatures in the shortest time, the party said The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) two referendum petitions — one on banning the importation of pork with traces of ractopamine and the other on holding referendums on the same day as national elections — had as of Thursday gathered 691,398 and 674,497 signatures respectively, the party said yesterday. If the petitions collect more than 700,000 signatures apiece, they would have garnered the most signatures in the shortest time since the Referendum Act (公民投票法) was amended in 2017, party officials said. The KMT proposed the “anti-ractopamine pork” or “food safety” referendum just days after President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) announcement on Aug. 28 last
RSS