Ever since the Sunflower movement started, different demands have been voiced, but it now seems as if a consensus has been reached on the demand that the legislature write a law regulating the oversight of cross-strait negotiations. The students are asking for quick action, but seem to have few concrete ideas as to the actual content of such a law.
Putting the issue of the content of such a law aside, this will be an analysis of the design of the constitution which causes the awkward role of the legislature when it comes to the oversight of cross-strait agreements.
After the fourth revision of the Constitution in 1997, Taiwan adopted what is commonly known as a semi-presidential system. On one hand, we have a popularly elected president with executive powers over things like national defense, diplomacy and cross-strait affairs, while on the other hand we have a premier. Although the premier is appointed by the president, the Constitution makes the premier the highest leader of the Cabinet. Historically, Taiwan has had a strong president. To a certain extent, grafting the strong presidency onto the constitutional Cabinet system has resulted in a confused and unclear role for the legislature.
If a country wants a strong president and also to protect the rights and interests of its citizens while not becoming a dictatorship, then we are talking about establishing a system similar to that of the US, whereby the separation of powers are embodied in the US constitution. The role of the US Congress is clear — to place checks and balances on the president. If our legislature were to really place checks and balances on the president and become a “tiger with teeth,” then it would need to have a lot of firepower added to it. This is why the globally admired US Congress system with its assistants, its library, its budget office and its research services is so large.
If we look at Taiwan’s legislature from the perspective of the US Congress, it is a toothless tiger. It may yell, roar and stir up all sorts of trouble, but it has never been able to “sink its teeth into” the heart of any issue. This to some extent has meant that the public has a bad impression of the legislature. This why many people have a hard time agreeing that more resources need to be allocated to make it more capable of carrying out its affairs.
Although Taiwan’s journey from authoritarianism to democracy has left the specter of a parliamentary Cabinet system, there is not a genuine system of this type in place. This has caused an even larger problem: The main task of the legislature has been to cooperate with and support the government. Only rarely does it use its legislative and investigative powers to place effective checks and balances on the government. In addition, the legislature lacks sufficient powers and resources to carry out effective oversight.
This is not only a problem linked to a lack of human resources. The legislature also lacks audit and impeachment powers. Even worse, there is no overlap between Cabinet members and legislators. As a result, when legislative support for government is needed, there are no legislators that are also Cabinet members which would enable them to channel information to the legislature to help understand policy developments.
If we look at past disputes over the signing of cross-strait agreements, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) in 2000 proposed the establishment of a cross-strait affairs task force to monitor such agreements. However, the Democratic Progressive Party government rejected it on the grounds that it would encroach on the execution of its diplomatic powers. When the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regained power in 2008, Wang raised the idea again, but this time it was rejected by the KMT, which said it would encroach on the execution of its power over internal affairs.
The legislature represents the public. However, if the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) is all the legislature has to rely on in order to monitor cross-strait agreements, which basically translates into an endorsement of such agreements, there is no mechanism in which the legislature can take part and gain an understanding of policy planning and developments. Such gaps in administrative and legislative information are impossible to fill, even if the ruling KMT controls more than half of the legislature.
This makes it very hard for legislators — who are supposed to represent the rights and interests of their constituencies and their voters — to provide full explanations for things and it makes the role of the legislature extremely awkward.
The most urgent thing now is to get the Cabinet to draw up a law regulating the signing of cross-strait agreements. On this front, all sides should be heard and the legislature should be given the opportunity to review cross-strait agreements on behalf of the public.
Liao Da-chi is director of the Institute of Political Science at National Sun Yat-sen University.
Translated by Drew Cameron
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