President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) pledged yesterday that the second phase of constitutional reforms will be carried out according to the "deliberative democracy" concept of facilitating extensive citizen participation in the process.
Chen was speaking to a foreign delegation visiting Taiwan for an international conference on constitutional re-engineering, which has been organized by a Presidential Office panel promoting constitutional reforms.
Chen said the country achieved the first phase of its constitutional reforms on June 7, by abolishing the National Assembly to allow for public referendums on future constitutional amendments, which will give the people the final say in any proposed amendments.
According to Chen, Taiwan may appear to have practiced constitutional democracy for more than 50 years, but in reality, the system has only been in practice for around 20 years, because of the 38-year martial law period which followed soon after the Republic of China Constitution was promulgated in 1947.
Although seven rounds of constitutional reforms have been launched over the past 14 years, people are still not satisfied with the results, he claimed.
Chen noted that most of the earlier reforms were motivated by politics and not open to public participation.
As a result of such changes, the constitutional system in Taiwan appears extremely "outlandish," Chen claimed. He noted that the system is neither a presidential system, semi-presidential system nor a parliamentary system, a situation that he said has led to the current political instability in the country.
Therefore, he stressed, the second phase reform is necessary in order to maintain national competitiveness, and the concept of deliberative democracy should be employed in the next round of reform to realize "true democracy."
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
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