Today the National Assembly will gather on Yangmingshan to open a new session, extraordinary in more senses than one. Its mission is nothing less than to initiate and complete one of the most significant constitutional reforms to date -- abolishing itself.
As a standing body empowered to both initiate and pass constitutional amendments -- elsewhere these powers are usually separated -- the National Assembly has great potential for both harm and good. In the early years of Taiwan's democratization, the Assembly's simplified procedures were useful in the speedy creation of an entirely new set of election procedures for the Legislative Yuan and the President, as well as themselves. Other major tasks in recent years have included downsizing the provincial government.
However, at each stage of the way, the Assembly deputies charged so-called "constitutional rent" -- with each needed reform, they included an increase in their own powers, especially budgetary ones. And the danger of ill-advised tinkering with the Constitution was always present.
Last year, they finally went too far, when they decided to extend their own terms, in exchange for the agreement to be selected in the future through proportional representation. Public outrage at the "constitutional monster" boiled over, and eventually the Council of Grand Justices stepped in two weeks ago to rein the Assembly in by striking the term extension down.
The Grand Justices risked a constitutional crisis in this, since their power to rule on the legality of the Assembly's actions was in doubt. By convening this emergency session, the Assembly seems to have accepted the legitimacy of the Grand Justices ruling, a significant precedent in itself.
Now the ball is back in the Assembly's court where it belongs. And this time pressure is on. If it fails by April 25 to pass an amendment to, among other changes, suspend elections to the body, delegates will have to start campaigning for re-election on May 6 (although they could still cancel them with an eleventh hour deal up until the night before).
With the full weight of public opinion now squarely in favor of not having another election, the three party caucuses in the Assembly have apparently worked out a deal to reduce the Assembly's powers greatly, and reverse the cycle of "constitutional rent." Short of outright abolition, which is still the ideal solution, this may be an acceptable plan.
Although James Soong (
It is not satisfactory, for example, to simply transfer the Assembly's powers lock, stock and barrel to the Legislative Yuan. There must multiple gates, so that no one institution can make changes suddenly. The new process must enable change to occur when there is a solid public consensus, but only with due deliberation. One method worthy of consideration would be to require any changes made by a representative body to be ratified by a public referendum.
Therefore, we are in the paradoxical position of calling for both haste and caution on the part of the Assembly. Another election would be a colossal waste, not only of resources, but of the opportunity to settle the problem of the Assembly once and for all. But given the Assembly's track record, we cannot but be concerned about the quality of the solution
These next weeks call for diligence and responsibility not only from the delegates, but from the public, which must monitor their actions carefully.
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