Friday's renewed seismic activity in southern Taiwan has not only resulted in yet more casualties, but has added fuel to the fire over the controversy surrounding President Lee Teng-hui's (
Following the latest earthquake, President Lee has declared a state of emergency in both Chiayi City and County -- the hardest-hit region this time -- and announced the emergency decree's expansion to cover these areas.
Helpful as it might be to earthquake relief efforts there, however, the president's announcement has also aroused questions as to whether the southern city -- which sustained virtually no damage in the last earthquake -- should be covered in the decree, which was specially formulated to deal with the 921 earthquake.
Proclaimed by Lee on Sept. 25, the emergency decree confines its powers to Taichung and Nantou counties and other pockets of damage. Officials from the Executive Yuan explained yesterday that Chiayi is within those geographical confinements, citing specifically that the city belongs to category of "other pockets" specified in the decree.
When the president announced the contents of the decree, he stipulated that its powers would remain in effect for a period of six months, and its area of jurisdiction would be limited to regions worst affected by the earthquake.
However, its subsequent application has drawn attacks from opposition politicians who say it is not only vaguely phrased, but that the powers conferred by it are so broad that they could easily jeopardize civil liberties guaranteed by the Constitution.
Criticism of the decree continued even after the Executive Yuan announced a set of so-called "operational priorities" on Sept. 18, which map out 14 specific guidelines, covering such parameters as financial management, the appropriation of civil resources, counseling work and compensation of victims.
Having exercised its constitutional power to approve the governing document -- the decree itself -- the Legislative Yuan has insisted that it should also review the operational priorities before they take effect.
Without going through the legislature, the Legislative Yuan claims, the administrative directives would leave executive authorities too much room for abusing power inferred by the decree, and its operational priorities.
In spite of a decision by the Executive Yuan on Friday to hand over the operational priorities to the legislature, the two organs remain at odds over whether the legislature is to review them clause-by-clause as they do in the normal statute-making process.
In view of the controversy surrounding the decree, legal scholars have been urging creation of emergency powers statutes, which specify measures to be taken in response to particular disasters. Ku Chung-hua (顧忠華), professor of sociology at National Chengchih University, pointed out that the decree -- though intended to help disaster victims -- has so far invoked more criticism than compliments.
"People have sensed a lack of accord between the emergency decree and relief efforts by the government. They've also criticized the practical value of the decree," Ku said.
"If used well, the decree could compliment relief efforts and help bring the lives of quake victims back to normality as soon as possible. But a string of policy U-turns have greatly discounted the decree's virtues, and that is exactly what the government should be worried about and act upon," he said.
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