Cross-caucus negotiations, which are usually held on the final days of a legislative session, have become a political vice that plagues the nation’s legislative system and need to be removed.
Carried out behind closed doors, where all kinds of dubious exchanges of benefits can take place, the negotiations are free from any form of scrutiny and might safely be branded “bureaucracy of the highest order.”
One of the debilitating effects that such negotiations have had on the nation is turning the public interest into a political bargaining chip.
They have also allowed some politicians to turn the time allotted for standard legislative meetings into political shows, in which they create all kinds of drama to attract attention in the hopes of winning over voters and bolstering their re-election chances.
Consequently, key bills are often delayed until the end of a legislative session and then brought to cross-caucus negotiations, where they are arbitrarily defeated or passed.
One infamous example is the passage of an amendment to Article 99, Clause 1 of the Accounting Act (會計法), which was passed shortly before midnight on May 31, 2013. The amendment would have acquitted all government officials and legislators who were imprisoned or facing charges for having misappropriated their stipends.
Although the legislation was later nullified after President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) seconded proposals to abolish the amendment, the incident forced Ma, then-Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and several DPP lawmakers to publicly apologize for having allowed such an amendment to pass — something that could not have happened without the consent of all the political parties involved in the discussions.
Another reason for abolishing cross-caucus negotiations is that it would help motivate people to approach social issues in a more sensible manner.
For example, a budget proposal submitted by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) to reprocess spent nuclear rods in France is set to be reviewed in the present legislative session. So far, opinions on how to handle nuclear waste have been polarized in an “all-or-nothing” manner: either stick to the plan or scrap it altogether.
The lack of a middle ground has brought the discussions to a standstill and little has been said about how to respond to a lack of domestic space for nuclear waste storage, which is a pressing matter that must be faced.
Imagine what would happen if the proposal were brought to the cross-caucus negotiations.
A possible scenario is that legislators who have on so many public occasions voiced their objections to the project would agree to it once they are hidden from the public eye, saying nuclear waste storage is a national security issue, and processing the waste overseas seems the only viable option.
Much of the clamor around the Taipower plan has to do with it choosing French company AREVA to undertake the project, as the firm is reportedly on the verge of bankruptcy.
The agitation over the plan has clouded the judgements of most people, preventing them from seeing an alternative to Taipower’s proposal — for example, finding another firm to carry out the reprocessing. Moreover, it has provided politicians a platform for politicking, one that created conflict and confused the public.
The nation has too much to lose with cross-caucus negotiations and any young political party taking a stand against such deal-making deserves a chance in January’s elections to push for reform in the legislature.
In their recent op-ed “Trump Should Rein In Taiwan” in Foreign Policy magazine, Christopher Chivvis and Stephen Wertheim argued that the US should pressure President William Lai (賴清德) to “tone it down” to de-escalate tensions in the Taiwan Strait — as if Taiwan’s words are more of a threat to peace than Beijing’s actions. It is an old argument dressed up in new concern: that Washington must rein in Taipei to avoid war. However, this narrative gets it backward. Taiwan is not the problem; China is. Calls for a so-called “grand bargain” with Beijing — where the US pressures Taiwan into concessions
The term “assassin’s mace” originates from Chinese folklore, describing a concealed weapon used by a weaker hero to defeat a stronger adversary with an unexpected strike. In more general military parlance, the concept refers to an asymmetric capability that targets a critical vulnerability of an adversary. China has found its modern equivalent of the assassin’s mace with its high-altitude electromagnetic pulse (HEMP) weapons, which are nuclear warheads detonated at a high altitude, emitting intense electromagnetic radiation capable of disabling and destroying electronics. An assassin’s mace weapon possesses two essential characteristics: strategic surprise and the ability to neutralize a core dependency.
Chinese President and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Chairman Xi Jinping (習近平) said in a politburo speech late last month that his party must protect the “bottom line” to prevent systemic threats. The tone of his address was grave, revealing deep anxieties about China’s current state of affairs. Essentially, what he worries most about is systemic threats to China’s normal development as a country. The US-China trade war has turned white hot: China’s export orders have plummeted, Chinese firms and enterprises are shutting up shop, and local debt risks are mounting daily, causing China’s economy to flag externally and hemorrhage internally. China’s
During the “426 rally” organized by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party under the slogan “fight green communism, resist dictatorship,” leaders from the two opposition parties framed it as a battle against an allegedly authoritarian administration led by President William Lai (賴清德). While criticism of the government can be a healthy expression of a vibrant, pluralistic society, and protests are quite common in Taiwan, the discourse of the 426 rally nonetheless betrayed troubling signs of collective amnesia. Specifically, the KMT, which imposed 38 years of martial law in Taiwan from 1949 to 1987, has never fully faced its
RSS