Mon, Dec 30, 2002 page8

• Reform legislature to end gridlock

  • By Wang Tuoh 王拓
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  The Fifth Legislative Yuan will end its second session at the end of the year. It is now facing gridlock and, as usual, lawmakers will work late into the night of the last day reviewing and passing bills. Legislators should remember that they become a target of media and public criticism every time they rush bills through at the last minute. Facing such heavy criticism, shouldn't they reflect on the question of why the legislature has become an auction room where extravagant prices are asked for the review and passage of bills? Why is it so inefficient? Why has the inter-caucus negotiation mechanism become dysfunctional and a backroom for political horse-trading? I believe the people of Taiwan all have these questions but can't do anything about the situation.

  When examining these questions, we need to know the obvious defects in the legislative system. We should reflect on the following questions and seek solutions to them.

  First, the Legislative Yuan's Procedure Committee has the power to allocate bills for review on the floor. This has spawned the problem of bills being blocked by the committee before they are sent to the floor. Because the Constitution endows both the Executive Yuan and legislators with the power to propose bills, the committee should respect their right to have their bills reviewed, no matter how controversial these bills may be. The bills should be sent to relevant committees for professional debate, instead of having their fate determined entirely by the Procedure Committee or on the legislative floor. In the past, bills were frequently blocked by just one independent legislator. After a few amendments, now only a legislative caucus can object to bills. However, confrontation between the ruling and opposition camps has resulted in a situation where party caucuses face off with each other in the Procedure Committee or on the floor.

  The operations of the Procedure Committee give us a glimpse of this situation. The DPP and the TSU control 17 seats on the committee, while the KMT and the PFP have a combined 19 seats. Thanks to the pan-blue camp's vote advantage, many bills proposed by the Executive Yuan to implement the consensus reached in last year's Economic Development Advisory Conference -- including bills on government reforms and the Financial Restructuring Fund -- have been repeatedly blocked by the committee. Naturally, the ruling party also tries its best to block bills proposed by the opposition. Such a vicious cycle of retaliation has resulted in a predicament where there is no law to review.

  Moreover, the legislature's committees cannot establish their professionalism or authority. The review reports filed by the committees are frequently rejected or massively revised on the legislative floor. Nowhere can the committees establish their professional authority. Article 3 of the Organic Law of the Legislative Yuan (立法院組織法) stipulates that each legislator may participate in only one committee. In practice, legislators scramble to register for hot committees while few are interested in joining the less popular committees. Besides, meeting regulations do not limit the number of speeches a legislator can make at committee meetings. As a result, most legislators swarm to the popular committees to register for speeches according to their personal political needs and the media exposure they can get. In contrast, they ignore the agendas at the committees of which they are members. Also, the legislators talk as if their heads are in the clouds, and their words usually have nothing to do with issues on the agenda. Committees thus become a venue for grandstanding. This naturally puts the committees' professionalism in doubt and undermines their authority.

  Furthermore, committee conveners preside over the committee meetings, but they cannot stop legislators from making statements unrelated to the agenda, nor can they control those who make grandiloquent, fanciful speeches. Besides, the Legislative Yuan has no tradition of congressional ethics or a seniority system. As a result, discipline is poor and the Discipline Committee exists in name only. Ugly attitudes are inevitable in the committees' operations, and there is no way to control the errant behavior of legislators.

  Finally, the inter-caucus negotiation mechanism has been put into a legal framework that regulates the actual cooperation and consensus-building between the caucuses. This has somewhat eased difficulties in the process of legislative reviews, and reduced unnecessary wrangling between the ruling party and the opposition. However, the Law Governing Legislators' Exercise of Power (立法院職權行使法) stipulates that caucus representatives must sign their names when a consensus is reached during the negotiations. If one caucus deliberately refuses to sign, all the negotiation between caucuses and the professional debates at the committees will go down the drain. What's even more outrageous is that the negotiation process is not public and therefore cannot be monitored by the media or the public. This contravenes the principle of open proceedings. Naturally, various abuses of power for selfish ends and the blockade of important bills frequently occur.

  In fact, the Legislative Yuan has become a hotbed of turmoil. The poor quality of legislative proceedings and the grandstanding attitudes of legislators are some of the reasons behind the political gridlock and economic decline. If the legislature is not reformed thoroughly, it will remain a source of chaos in this country. We may even be better off without such a legislature.

  Wang Tuoh is a DPP legislator.

  Translated by Francis Huang
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