Although the local elections only took place last year, media and public attention has already moved on to next year’s presidential election. It seems that little attention has been given to whether the newly elected civil representatives are carrying out their duties properly, as outlined in Article 35 to 37 in the Local Government Act (地方制度法).
There has been little media coverage so far, let alone reviews or assessments of the representatives’ performances.
Recently, a local civil organization called Tainan City Council Watch (台南議會觀察聯盟) published a review report on the first meeting of the fourth session of the Tainan City Council. The review method relied on quantitative and qualitative research. Those who had uncovered major problems in proposals or achieved other feats received extra credit, while those who had a poor attendance rate or did not perform well during question-and-answer sessions had points deducted. The report commended the performance of 15 city councilors, while four were put on “probation,” requiring improvement.
From a local self-governance perspective, grassroots-level non-governmental organizations (NGOs) supervising local councils is a laudable milestone for regional democracy.
However, as local media have long been focused on events in Taipei, there has been little coverage about the report, whether in the press or digital media.
A “second democratic reform,” which focuses on decentralization, privatization of state enterprises and promoting civil political participation to address Taiwan’s stalled political reform, was the key recommendation proposed by former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) in his final years.
As decentralization was a main theme in the recommendation, Lee had called on the central government to empower local governments with more authority regarding personnel, education and finance because, judging by government efficiency and national finances at the time, the central government would be incapable of dealing with various tasks in a diverse society.
The idea echoed the famous saying that “all politics is local.” Establishing a well-founded and sustainable local democratic system or a fundamental degree of autonomy is tantamount to achieving a healthy, vibrant central democratic system.
Strangely, several incumbent Taipei councilors, who were hoping to gain an edge over others in next year’s legislative elections with publicity and media attention, started criticizing Kaohsiung’s Cianjhen Fishing Port renovation project, Tainan’s Shalun Smart Green Energy Science City and the Pingtung Baseball Field, which all fell beyond their jurisdiction. This kind of meddling, busybody behavior should be condemned in any city council, and would not be tolerated if there had been a Taipei City Council Watch.
The public should give more attention to NGOs such as Tainan City Council Watch, so that similar organizations can be established across Taiwan, thereby realizing a minimum level of decentralization. Their presence would serve as a supervisory rating system, providing local citizens with an impartial performance assessment of city or county councilors.
In this way, the local elections might finally shake off the pomposity that political campaigns bring, and instead introduce rational public discussion and debate.
Lo Cheng-chung is a professor and director of Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology’s Institute of Financial and Economic Law.
Translated by Rita Wang
When Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) sits down with US President Donald Trump in Beijing on Thursday next week, Xi is unlikely to demand a dramatic public betrayal of Taiwan. He does not need to. Beijing’s preferred victory is smaller, quieter and in some ways far more dangerous: a subtle shift in American wording that appears technical, but carries major strategic meaning. The ask is simple: replace the longstanding US formulation that Washington “does not support Taiwan independence” with a harder one — that Washington “opposes” Taiwan independence. One word changes; a deterrence structure built over decades begins to shift.
Taipei is facing a severe rat infestation, and the city government is reportedly considering large-scale use of rodenticides as its primary control measure. However, this move could trigger an ecological disaster, including mass deaths of birds of prey. In the past, black kites, relatives of eagles, took more than three decades to return to the skies above the Taipei Basin. Taiwan’s black kite population was nearly wiped out by the combined effects of habitat destruction, pesticides and rodenticides. By 1992, fewer than 200 black kites remained on the island. Fortunately, thanks to more than 30 years of collective effort to preserve their remaining
After Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing, most headlines referred to her as the leader of the opposition in Taiwan. Is she really, though? Being the chairwoman of the KMT does not automatically translate into being the leader of the opposition in the sense that most foreign readers would understand it. “Leader of the opposition” is a very British term. It applies to the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy, and to some extent, to other democracies. If you look at the UK right now, Conservative Party head Kemi Badenoch is
A Pale View of Hills, a movie released last year, follows the story of a Japanese woman from Nagasaki who moved to Britain in the 1950s with her British husband and daughter from a previous marriage. The daughter was born at a time when memories of the US atomic bombing of Nagasaki during World War II and anxiety over the effects of nuclear radiation still haunted the community. It is a reflection on the legacy of the local and national trauma of the bombing that ended the period of Japanese militarism. A central theme of the movie is the need, at
RSS