Originally designed to speed up reconstruction after the 921 earthquake, the emergency order has been misused by administrative authorities, DPP lawmakers said yesterday.
Four days after the quake struck, President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) issued an emergency decree, which supersedes a raft of legislation, in order to increase administrative efficiency and rebuild quickly.
There have been worries that the order is vague and gives authorities too much power.
The excessive exercise of administrative power prompted attacks from DPP lawmakers yesterday who feared the legislature would not have a say on drafting bylaws.
"It's a shameless way of expanding administrative power, or even worse, a way of encouraging corruption," said Chang Chun-hsiung (
"With a power of approval, the legislature at least had a say on the content of the emergency order and could maintain the integrity of it. But our legislative power is significantly undermined as the executive authorities now can cover whatever they want in the bylaws [of the order]."
Chang, along with other DPP lawmakers, also accused the KMT of using bylaws for its own political ends. With so many laws suspended by the emergency order, the KMT could increase its control to the extent it would be above the law, they said.
"It is well known that the KMT has had close connections with local factions. At least before, we could prevent misuse of power by rule of law. But now they can just use the emergency order to avoid checks by the legislature," DPP lawmaker Lin Chung-cheng (林忠正) said.
"To cite one case, a multi-billion-dollar bidding project used to have to pass stages of assessments under relevant bidding regulations. But the emergency order makes it convenient for corrupt officials to skip the assessments and make decisions favorable to particular bidders," Lin said.
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
ELITE UNIT: President William Lai yesterday praised the National Police Agency’s Special Operations Group after watching it go through assault training and hostage rescue drills The US Navy regularly conducts global war games to develop deterrence strategies against a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, aimed at making the nation “a very difficult target to take,” US Acting Chief of Naval Operations James Kilby said on Wednesday. Testifying before the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, Kilby said the navy has studied the issue extensively, including routine simulations at the Naval War College. The navy is focused on five key areas: long-range strike capabilities; countering China’s command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting; terminal ship defense; contested logistics; and nontraditional maritime denial tactics, Kilby
RSS