Legislative oversight of the executive branch is a democratic cornerstone. However, with the combined presidential and legislative elections last month, the legislative elections were completely overshadowed by the presidential election. It is very worrying that such an important institution should be given so little attention. It can only be hoped that the legislators in the new legislature will prove superior to those of the previous one.
The difference in numbers between the pan-blue and pan-green camps was smaller from 2004 to 2008, but it was also marked by strong divisions. In the next legislature, in office between 2008 and this year, the pan-blue camp controlled over 70 percent of the seats, and in addition, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was elected in 2008 with 58 percent of the vote, which gave the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) control of both the legislative and the executive branches. It was hoped that this would translate into a more effective legislature, but it was not only ineffective but also substandard.
During the passage of the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), which the government saw as crucial, and the amendment of other related laws during the first extraordinary meeting of the fifth session, all bills and amendments were passed and sent to a second reading after just six minutes, despite dissent from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Why wasn’t such an important piece of legislation properly and thoroughly discussed by the legislature? Even worse, this situation was continually repeated during the previous legislature, as is easily ascertained by visiting the live broadcast and video-on-demand pages on the legislature’s Web site.
Legislation proposed by the DPP was often blocked by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) at the procedural committee stage, where the KMT has a larger number of committee members. This meant such proposals did not even make it to a first legislative reading. After the meeting between Straits Exchange Foundation chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), many cross-strait agreements have come into effect “by default,” without having first gone through any active review.
In theory, legislative committees are supposed to provide expert reviews, but as important legislation is sent directly to a second reading or party negotiations it is not unusual to see committees adjourned by noon. During its last session, the legislature set a post-martial law record in passing a government budget almost untouched, cutting it by a mere 0.007 percent, clearly not fulfilling their responsibility to monitor the Cabinet.
Given this behavior, it is hardly surprising that the legislature has little credibility. According to an opinion poll conducted by the Chinese-language CommonWealth Magazine in July last year, only 25.5 percent of respondents were satisfied with the KMT, while more than 60 percent expressed dissatisfaction with the party.
The legislature is no longer completely dominated by the KMT, and it is to be hoped that there will now be more communication between the executive branch and the legislature, that the procedural committee will stop its practice of reviewing every proposed piece of legislation, that committees will be allowed to provide expert reviews and that committee members will review legislative proposals in earnest.
We can only hope that our expectations will be met this time around.
Hawang Shiow-duan is a professor of political science at Soochow University.
Translated by Perry Svensson
Recently, the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) published three of my articles on the US presidential election, which is to be held on Nov. 5. I would like to share my perspective on the intense and stalemated presidential election with the people of Taiwan, as well as Taiwanese and Chinese Americans in the US. The current consensus of both major US political parties is to counter China and protect Taiwan. However, I do not trust former US president Donald Trump. He has questioned the US’ commitment to defending Taiwan and explicitly stated the significant challenges involved in doing so. “Trump believes
The government is considering building a semiconductor cluster in Europe, specifically in the Czech Republic, to support Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC) new fab in Dresden, Germany, and to help local companies explore new business opportunities there. Europe wants to ensure the security of its semiconductor sector, but a lack of comprehensive supply chains there could pose significant risks to semiconductor clusters. The Czech government is aggressively seeking to build its own semiconductor industry and showing strong interest in collaborating with Taiwanese companies. Executive Yuan Secretary-General Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) on Friday said that Taiwan is optimistic about building a semiconductor cluster in
China has successfully held its Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, with 53 of 55 countries from the African Union (AU) participating. The two countries that did not participate were Eswatini and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, which have no diplomatic relations with China. Twenty-four leaders were reported to have participated. Despite African countries complaining about summit fatigue, with recent summits held with Russia, Italy, South Korea, the US and Indonesia, as well as Japan next month, they still turned up in large numbers in Beijing. China’s ability to attract most of the African leaders to a summit demonstrates that it is still being
The Russian city of Vladivostok lies approximately 45km from the Sino-Russian border on the Sea of Japan. The area was not always Russian territory: It was once the site of a Chinese settlement. The settlement would later be known as Yongmingcheng (永明城), the “city of eternal light,” during the Yuan Dynasty. That light was extinguished in 1858 when a large area of land was ceded by the Qing Dynasty to the Russian Empire with the signing of the Treaty of Aigun. The People’s Republic of China founded by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has never ruled Taiwan. Taiwan was governed by the
RSS