One day after President William Lai (賴清德) was sworn in, tens of thousands of citizens gathered outside the Legislative Yuan, as legislators held a highly contentious session inside the building. Protesters decried the two major opposition parties — the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), whose combined seats in the legislature outnumber that of Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) — for sponsoring several bills that are widely viewed as unconstitutional, financially and environmentally unsustainable or a threat to privacy rights.
Equally objectionable in the eyes of many civic groups was the disregard for due process, as the bills were rushed through the legislature without sufficient discussion or bipartisan negotiations, and legislators were allowed to vote anonymously so that they could avoid accountability during the next election.
Many described the civil unrest as the new Sunflower movement, referencing the student movement that took place 10 years ago at the same site for similar reasons.
However, academics and veteran activists have warned that the current KMT-TPP sponsored bills would have a greater and more destructive impact on Taiwan’s democracy than the proposed trade deal with China being opposed in 2014.
One proposal would allow the legislature to punish government officials, legal persons and private citizens that fail to hand over documents by finding them in “contempt of the legislature” and/or imposing exorbitant fines. Grave concerns about the overreach of the legislative branch has worried and angered many.
Ironically, the placards of many protesters read: “I hold the legislature in contempt” as KMT and TPP legislators were poised to pass their “contempt of the legislature” bills.
Taiwanese must indeed express their anger at the Legislative Yuan, as KMT and TPP legislators have abandoned their civic duties.
Yale University sociologist Jeffrey Alexander says that, while campaign speeches and performances are often intensely partisan and even ugly, successful democracies must maintain cultural rituals and institutional procedures to ensure that partisan struggles, no matter how intense, work to strengthen, not derail, democracy.
Thus, the winners give acceptance speeches to honor their competitors and reaffirm nonpartisan commitment to the people, while the losers concede elections and vow to support the people’s chosen candidates.
Political parties commit to following and protecting common democratic procedures even as they pursue ideologically divergent goals, and government officials are obligated to follow the law and serve the people, above and beyond party interests.
If this sounds mundane, it is worth remembering that these civic virtues were put to an extreme test in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election in the US. Donald Trump became the first US president not to attend his successor’s inauguration since 1869, which exacerbated rather than healed the social rifts caused by the election.
In their latest dangerous and detestable violations of their civic duties, KMT and TPP legislators are endangering Taiwan’s democracy for the sake of partisan goals. Many of them opted to boycott Lai’s inauguration on Monday. They then contravened democratic processes to pursue legislation. Their sponsored bills have raised many eyebrows regarding whether they are meant to serve political parties or the populace.
Throughout, these legislators have been repeating the mantra “democracy means the minority obeys the majority.” Therein lies the reason for the people to hold the legislature in contempt, for democracy must not be reduced to merely counting votes.
Stripped of the separation of powers, substantive policy evaluation and the protection of civil liberties, liberal democracies face the danger of degenerating into illiberal democracies. This is the path onto which KMT and TPP legislators are pushing Taiwan.
That is why the people of Taiwan must hold the legislature in contempt until further notice.
Lo Ming-cheng is a professor of Sociology at the University of California-Davis, whose research addresses civil society, political cultures and medical sociology.
Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康), former chairman of Broadcasting Corp of China and leader of the “blue fighters,” recently announced that he had canned his trip to east Africa, and he would stay in Taiwan for the recall vote on Saturday. He added that he hoped “his friends in the blue camp would follow his lead.” His statement is quite interesting for a few reasons. Jaw had been criticized following media reports that he would be traveling in east Africa during the recall vote. While he decided to stay in Taiwan after drawing a lot of flak, his hesitation says it all: If
When Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) first suggested a mass recall of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators, the Taipei Times called the idea “not only absurd, but also deeply undemocratic” (“Lai’s speech and legislative chaos,” Jan. 6, page 8). In a subsequent editorial (“Recall chaos plays into KMT hands,” Jan. 9, page 8), the paper wrote that his suggestion was not a solution, and that if it failed, it would exacerbate the enmity between the parties and lead to a cascade of revenge recalls. The danger came from having the DPP orchestrate a mass recall. As it transpired,
Elbridge Colby, America’s Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, is the most influential voice on defense strategy in the Second Trump Administration. For insight into his thinking, one could do no better than read his thoughts on the defense of Taiwan which he gathered in a book he wrote in 2021. The Strategy of Denial, is his contemplation of China’s rising hegemony in Asia and on how to deter China from invading Taiwan. Allowing China to absorb Taiwan, he wrote, would open the entire Indo-Pacific region to Chinese preeminence and result in a power transition that would place America’s prosperity
All 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu Mayor Ann Kao (高虹安), formerly of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), survived recall elections against them on Saturday, in a massive loss to the unprecedented mass recall movement, as well as to the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) that backed it. The outcome has surprised many, as most analysts expected that at least a few legislators would be ousted. Over the past few months, dedicated and passionate civic groups gathered more than 1 million signatures to recall KMT lawmakers, an extraordinary achievement that many believed would be enough to remove at
RSS