The Legislative Yuan on Friday last week passed a referendum allowing people to vote on whether a death sentence could only be issued through a unanimous court decision. The proposal was made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), which said the “unanimous” requirement could be seen as a barrier to the death sentence.
It is the latest in a series of legislative efforts that the KMT has said are “defending national security” and “giving back people their rights.” However, it might simply be decoy tactics to draw attention away from the recalls against its lawmakers, or to block the recalls. The KMT’s and the Taiwan People’s Party’s lawmakers’ efforts include passing amendments to extend the operating license of nuclear reactors by 20 years, adding four additional national holidays and making Workers’ Day a national holiday (“4+1” holidays) for all sectors starting this year.
A legislative review on the Cabinet’s NT$410 billion (US$13.59 billion) special relief package proposal, which aims to enhance resilience to global economic shocks, is to continue this week. The KMT has proposed to cut a NT$100 billion subsidy to Taiwan Power Co and NT$150 billion for whole-of-society defense resilience from the package, and advocated for the distribution of NT$10,000 to each citizen.
With 30 of the KMT’s 35 lawmakers likely to face a recall and many of its local chapter officials facing lawsuits for allegedly forging signatures in its recall drive against Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, the party has shifted gears this month to focus on bills directly linked to people’s livelihood, or so it claims. To win support from neutral voters to save their legislators from recalls, KMT officials are borrowing concepts that the DPP-led government frequently emphasizes, such as “security” and “resilience,” pulling back from some extreme rhetoric that has hardly gained them sympathy, but instead attracted international society’s concerns last month.
Although “4+1” holidays and a one-time cash payment proposal are clearly unrefined policies that aim to instantly please voters, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) last week said it is to “give back” the holidays to workers and “return” “excess” tax taken from taxpayers, while a KMT legislator said it would help bolster “consumer resilience.” They also said that extending nuclear reactors’ operating licenses would enhance economic security, keep high-tech companies in Taiwan and maintain energy diversity, which in turn leads to national security.
Pan blue-leaning media are reporting pundits’ speculations about an electricity price hike or that companies are unwilling to invest in Taiwan if nuclear reactors cannot extend their operations. KMT lawmakers are saying that if they are recalled, people’s holidays would be “taken away.” Moreover, it continues to frame the government as only focused on political infighting, while the KMT “truly cares about the people and are passing bills to improve their livelihood.”
The KMT’s arguments seem to capitalize on the public’s insufficient knowledge on issues, including by deliberately ignoring the decades-long discussions on nuclear safety and unsolved nuclear waste disposal problems, and simplifying it as the “only solution” to prevent an electricity price rise. It leaves out how its legislators in the past year were committed to expanding legislative power, warming up relations with China, and crippling the Constitutional Court and the government, all for its own benefit, disregarding the public — which is what sparked the nationwide recall campaign in the first place.
A recent poll showed that 58 percent of Taiwanese are in favor of the “4+1” holidays, suggesting that the KMT might have scored in its latest strategy to counter recalls. It also serves as a warning that the KMT might continue to instill in the public fear of losing their “benefits and security” — holidays, lower electricity rates, cash payments and the death penalty — to block their recall efforts.
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The Legislative Yuan passed an amendment on Friday last week to add four national holidays and make Workers’ Day a national holiday for all sectors — a move referred to as “four plus one.” The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who used their combined legislative majority to push the bill through its third reading, claim the holidays were chosen based on their inherent significance and social relevance. However, in passing the amendment, they have stuck to the traditional mindset of taking a holiday just for the sake of it, failing to make good use of
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