New constitution
Taiwan New Constitution Foundation founder Koo Kwang-ming (辜寬敏) is to resign as presidential adviser, dissatisfied with President Tsai Ing-wen’s reluctance to draft a new constitution, despite being in power for five years.
Koo said that the majority of Taiwanese support the normalization of the nation, and that drafting a new constitution would be an important step, compared to simply amending the Constitution, which is only good for winning elections.
Koo said that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had done nothing toward the normalization of Taiwan; for this reason he felt obliged to resign.
One suspects that many Taiwanese share Koo’s frustration. For more than 50 years, Taiwan has been a sovereign, independent and free country, with its own defined territory, population, laws, currency and taxation, economic and financial systems under the state’s jurisdiction. If that does not constitute a country, what does?
The Republic of China (ROC) Constitution was written in China, when the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed that country, and is a historical relic unable to escape from China’s shadow. To draft a constitution that solely belongs to Taiwan is not only reasonable and fair, it is perfectly legal.
If drafting a new constitution presents problems and the government feels that it can only amend the existing one, it should explain why, and then lay out a roadmap for writing a new one.
Chi An-hsiu
Taipei
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