On Monday last week, the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation published the results of an opinion poll in which 83.4 percent of respondents said they understood the territory of the Republic of China (ROC) to be “Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and adjacent islands,” while only 8.4 percent said that it also includes the whole of China.
Another opinion poll published by the Taiwan Thinktank produced similar results, with 82.1 percent of respondents saying that the nation’s territory should be defined as “the areas over which the Constitution is currently effective.”
The two polls show that the mainstream public opinion in Taiwan no longer identifies with the territory of China. The polls show that a majority of Taiwanese think the nation’s territory should be defined as the areas that are effectively governed by Taiwan.
Article 4 of the Constitution says: “The territory of the Republic of China within its existing national boundaries shall not be altered except by a resolution of the National Assembly.”
However, for the National Assembly delegates who approved the Constitution in 1947, the nation’s boundaries formed a vast territory that included all of China and Mongolia. Moreover, the National Assembly was abolished in 2005.
This shows that many aspects of the Constitution do not match today’s reality and run contrary to what most people believe. Amending it has therefore become an essential project that conforms to mainstream public opinion.
On Wednesday last week, Democratic Progressive Party legislators proposed a bill to amend the additional articles of the Constitution, calling for the definition in Article 4 of the nation’s territory by its “existing national boundaries” to be changed to “the region in which the Constitution is effective” — bringing it in line with the present-day reality.
This draft amendment is to be given to the legislature’s Constitutional Amendment Committee for discussion. If the legislature adopts the proposal, it would still need to be put to a referendum to complete the constitutional amendment procedure.
The opinion polls and the proposed amendment highlight the inadequacies of the existing Constitution.
A look back at the process in which the Constitution was written, shows that it is also outdated with respect to safeguards for human rights. It mostly deals with first-generation rights, without ample safeguards for the new-generation rights that have developed since World War II, such as the right to resist, environmental rights and the right to privacy.
In President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) inaugural address for her second term in office, she said that the Constitutional Amendment Committee would make it possible to “engage in dialogue and reach a consensus on constitutional reforms pertaining to government systems and people’s rights.”
Tsai should act on this by coordinating between society, and governing and opposition parties, and by consolidating a consensus within her own party.
The government should implement methods such as citizen deliberation to let non-governmental organizations and the public engage in discussions about constitutional reform, be it comprehensive reform of the Constitution or writing a new one.
Taiwanese long for a new constitution — not just one that complies with present-day realities, but one that stems from discussions to reach a widespread consensus, so that it truly belongs to every citizen.
Lin Jun-jie is a student in Chung Yuan Christian University’s financial and economic law department.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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