The third session of the fifth legislature concluded on June 6 with most of the reform bills shelved. The legislature's overall performance was very poor -- lawmakers either defended their own parties' interests or sought their own personal gain. It is very worrying that the legislature has deteriorated to this point.
There are a number of political, economic, judicial and public health issues that need to be addressed. A great number of bills related to reform need to be passed. But the DPP is too weak to get the reforms passed in the face of the opposition's obstruction.
The history of three reform bills -- for the Judicial Yuan, media and finance -- demonstrate that lawmakers are the root cause of the reforms being stalled.
After long-term discussions, a practical proposal for judicial reform was finally presented in the National Judicial Reform conference in 1999. Major judicial reforms would start with amendments to the Organic Law of the Judicial Yuan (
In October 2001, the Council of Grand Justices issued Interpretation No. 530: "In order to be consistent with the original purpose of the Constitution, which considers the Judicial Yuan to be the highest judicial adjudicative organ, the Organic Law of the Judicial Yuan, the Law of the Court Organization (法院組織法), the Organic Law of the Administrative Court (行政法院組織法), and the Organic Law of the Committee on Disciplinary Sanctions of Functionaries (公務員懲戒委員會組織法) must be reviewed and
revised in accordance with the designated constitutional structure two years after the publication of this interpretation."
Revisions to the Organic Law of the Judicial Yuan were sent to the legislature last October. High-ranking officials in the Judicial Yuan worked to push for the revisions. Private organizations promoting judicial reform also spared no effort to help.
Judicial Yuan President Weng Yueh-sheng (翁岳生), who is highly respected in legal and political circles, recently made an appeal to the legislature, hoping that revisions to this law could be passed. However, he failed to gain support from the KMT and PFP leadership. Lawmakers of these two parties even held up the judicial reform bill in an attempt to twist the Council of Grand Justices' constitutional interpretation.
The fact that the KMT and PFP blocked the revisions reveals that these parties still oppose reform. Judicial reform is a national reconstruction project that private organizations have sought for a long time. Former president Lee Teng-hui (
Former Judicial Yuan president Shih Chi-yang (施啟揚) started the reforms. Weng, after taking office, has made every endeavor to continue with the reforms. Now, as the momentum of reforms was about to speed up, it was halted by the KMT and PFP. Apparently, the pan-blue camp has inherited the conservative anti-reform tradition.
To foster more aggressive cooperation in the next presidential election, these parties have turned the legislative floor into a battlefield. They cooperated, taking advantage of their legislative majority to obstruct the passage of reform-related bills, especially those involving large political or partisan interests.
Their cooperation is reminiscent of the atmosphere when the KMT was in power, but there also exists a big difference. Now in opposition, they are blocking reforms. When they were in power, they delayed the reforms.
The public has expected the DPP to demonstrate its prowess and carry out reforms. But hindered by the KMT and PFP, it has found itself at its wits' end and powerless to push for reform. The performance of the DPP's legislative caucus and lawmakers was very disappointing.
In particular, revisions to the three laws governing broadcasting and television, which had been endorsed by the KMT and PFP, failed to pass because of opposition from within the DPP. By using the TSU and his allies within the party, DPP Legislator Trong Chai (
The refusal of the TSU and the alliance of independent lawmakers to sign the negotiation results was the main reason for the setback, but what is more important is that political horse-trading was involved.
Media reconstruction is a major reform the DPP chairman has promised to promote. Since party-reform policies were established more than three months ago, the DPP chairman, headquarters and legislative caucus apparently have not worked hard to eliminate anti-reform voices inside the party. The DPP must conduct a deep review of its failure to push for media reform policies and undertake a detailed investigation.
Many bills concerning economic and financial reforms were also stalled by the legislature. Along with opposition parties' hinderance in the budget review for state-run businesses, these have greatly harmed economic and financial reforms.
Pan-blue lawmakers' obstruction is meant to undermine the government's performance in a bid to gain advantage in the presidential election, but there is still ample room for the Cabinet, the DPP and its legislative caucus to work.
The legislature is now the biggest obstacle in the nation's politics, economy and even social development. During the recent session, the legislature ended up becoming a battlefield for partisan struggles and the seeking of personal gain. Its overall performance was poor.
Although the public can do nothing about it, they will remember this as a bad time.
Chiu Hei-yuan is a research fellow at Academia Sinica's Institute of Sociology and a member of the Taipei Society.
Translated by Jackie Lin
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