Wed, Oct 20, 1999 page8

• Editorial: Legislative oversight a necessary evil

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  In the latest episode in the saga of whether the legislature is to have some oversight powers over the implementation of the 921 emergency decree measures, Premier Vincent Siew (蕭萬長), who on Saturday was totally opposed to the idea -- what use would the red-tape severing decree be if the measures it authorized could get bogged down in the legislature? -- and on Monday asked the Ministry of Justice look into the administrative law aspects of the matter, to report to the Cabinet tomorrow, yesterday suggested a compromise where the legislature may have powers of approval, but not power to change Cabinet directives made under the emergency decree. This latest move is obviously an attempt to placate legislators and constitutional scholars while sacrificing the absolute a minimum of Cabinet authority.

  The Cabinet has a number of reasons not to give the legislature real oversight of the emergency decree. Some of these are self-interested; for example, the KMT's chances at the presidential polls in March will be hugely affected by the government's perceived competence after the quake, so the reconstruction process is obviously something over which it will want to keep as much control as possible. But it isn't just self-interest that dictates that reconstruction proceeds as fast as possible. Quake victims need to be given secure accommodation jobs, schools and the other things necessary to restoring their way of life, and this has to happen quickly.

  And here is the nub of the matter. Taiwan's legislature is so appallingly slow at accomplishing almost anything that the Cabinet, along with the quake victims themselves, rightly worry that generations yet unborn will grow old in temporary accommodation if the legislature is given oversight of the emergency decree. This is not to say that the legislature is incapable of greater speed -- it passed a law banning handgun ownership in the wake of the murder of Taoyuan County Commissioner Liu Pang-you in less than 24 hours. But usually legislative speed comes at a price: the lawmaking body has an even greater reputation for venality than for sloth. Just imagine how many red envelopes would have to be passed around, how many tasty construction contracts would have to directed into favored pockets, how many special construction budgets nodded through. For this very reason, therefore, the suggestion that this legislature can possibly have much effective oversight of the emergency decree activities is laughable; and it looks to have been motivated more by the anger of legislators not being allowed their share of the pie than any concern for democratic accountability.

  But there are principles as well as practical considerations at stake here; in particular, the idea that matters directly infringing on people's rights and obligations should require the consent of those people's directly elected representatives. The executive should not be allowed to do as it wishes under the mantle of the emergency decree, limited though those powers might be. To allow this would make a nonsense of constitutional checks and balances, and constitutional principles have been abused too much in Taiwan over the past 50 years for this newspaper to endorse more of the same. And this case is all the more important because it is the first of its kind since the constitutional reforms of 1991; it thereby sets a precedent for the future.

  Constitutional principle or, perhaps -- and this is a big perhaps -- a speedier reconstruction process: it is an ugly choice. No wonder Siew wanted to see which way the wind blows. A choice must be made and, for what it is worth, this paper feels the constitutional issue must take precedence. We might smile at the idea that "this legislature" is a competent oversight authority. But there might be other legislatures in other emergencies who are competent, there might be other Cabinets who will try to overstep the mark, and Taiwan cannot afford a constitutional precedent that diminishes the people's voice. We are skeptical that the inveterate poachers in the Legislative Yuan can be good gamekeepers, but this still has to be better than the possible recurrence in the future of the kind of abuse of executive privilege which has marred so much of Taiwan's past.
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