The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has suggested that the nation institute an annual “state of the nation” address delivered by the president to the legislature as part of its proposals for the new legislature. Its stated objective for the reform is to rein in the executive excesses of the president, making them more accountable to the legislature. The idea of a state of the nation address is certainly one worth exploring. It could bring some discipline to the executive branch, making its agenda more accountable.
However, if the KMT’s true intention is democratic accountability and not simply to stymie a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) president from enacting their legislative agenda, the KMT might want to also look at its own conduct in opposition. To have a functioning democracy, there needs to be a well-functioning opposition to effectively hold the government accountable, something the KMT has sorely lacked over the past decade.
Many nations have something akin to a state of the nation address delivered by the head of state on a regular or annual basis — providing the head of state with the opportunity to outline their legislative agenda in the upcoming year, talk about where they think the nation stands and the challenges it faces. In the US, this comes in the form of the State of the Union address delivered by the president to a joint session of the US Congress. In the UK, the state opening of parliament fulfills this role, whereby the sovereign delivers a speech informing the nation of the government’s legislative priorities for the new parliamentary session.
Taiwan already has something akin to a state of the nation address, and that is the annual Double Ten National Day address, delivered on Oct. 10. Like the US’ State of the Union address, the National Day address provides the president with the opportunity to take stock of where the nation is, where it is going, the challenges it faces and offer some proposals to tackle issues.
However, that address is less objective-oriented compared with that of the UK and the US, nor is it delivered in the legislature.
This is, presumably, the purpose of the KMT’s proposal — to make the president more accountable to the legislature. Benefits could certainly flow from this, as an annual presidential address to the legislature could bolster its power, making the president more accountable to it and the nation. Additionally, government organs as a whole could become more efficient, with everyone pulling in the same direction.
The KMT argues that the past eight years of DPP governance has been characterized by executive overreach riding roughshod over democracy, whereby a DPP president working with a DPP majority in legislature undermined lawmakers from being able to hold the government accountable. This is not entirely unwarranted criticism. There are certainly examples — such as the NT$800 billion (US$25.55 million) Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program — which was passed in 2017 through the legislature with minimal accountability.
However, in any democracy, for an executive to be efficiently held to account, there needs to be a properly functioning opposition. An example of this abroad is in the UK, where former leader of the opposition Jeremy Corbyn’s incompetent and divisive leadership of the Labour Party enabled the Conservative Party to ride roughshod over democratic norms in the wake of the 2016 Brexit vote.
If the KMT truly wishes to advance Taiwanese democracy and make the president more accountable and transparent, it should prioritize getting its own house in order, guided by the wishes and values of Taiwanese, not its China-leaning elite. No democracy can work well with such a dysfunctional opposition so divided and estranged from the nation.
Apart from the first arms sales approval for Taiwan since US President Donald Trump took office, last month also witnessed another milestone for Taiwan-US relations. Trump signed the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act into law on Tuesday. Its passing without objection in the US Senate underscores how bipartisan US support for Taiwan has evolved. The new law would further help normalize exchanges between Taiwanese and US government officials. We have already seen a flurry of visits to Washington earlier this summer, not only with Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), but also delegations led by National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu
Chinese state-owned companies COSCO Shipping Corporation and China Merchants have a 30 percent stake in Kaohsiung Port’s Kao Ming Container Terminal (Terminal No. 6) and COSCO leases Berths 65 and 66. It is extremely dangerous to allow Chinese companies or state-owned companies to operate critical infrastructure. Deterrence theorists are familiar with the concepts of deterrence “by punishment” and “by denial.” Deterrence by punishment threatens an aggressor with prohibitive costs (like retaliation or sanctions) that outweigh the benefits of their action, while deterrence by denial aims to make an attack so difficult that it becomes pointless. Elbridge Colby, currently serving as the Under
When the towers of Wang Fuk Court turned into a seven-building inferno on Wednesday last week, killing 128 people, including a firefighter, Hong Kong officials promised investigations, pledged to review regulations and within hours issued a plan to replace bamboo scaffolding with steel. It sounded decisive. It was not. The gestures are about political optics, not accountability. The tragedy was not caused by bamboo or by outdated laws. Flame-retardant netting is already required. Under Hong Kong’s Mandatory Building Inspection Scheme — which requires buildings more than 30 years old to undergo inspection every decade and compulsory repairs — the framework for
Ho Ying-lu (何鷹鷺), a Chinese spouse who was a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Central Standing Committee, on Wednesday last week resigned from the KMT, accusing the party of failing to clarify its “one China” policy. In a video released in October, Ho, wearing a T-shirt featuring a portrait of Mao Zedong (毛澤東), said she hoped that Taiwan would “soon return to the embrace of the motherland” and “quickly unify — that is my purpose and my responsibility.” The KMT’s Disciplinary Committee on Nov. 19 announced that Ho had been suspended from her position on the committee, although she was
RSS