Rai Hau-min (賴浩敏), President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) nominee to head the Judicial Yuan, faced a barrage of questions from legislators yesterday over his interest in judicial reform.
During a question-and-answer session with Rai and Su Yeong-chin (蘇永欽), the nominee for vice president of the Judicial Yuan, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Kung Wen-chi (孔文吉) asked if Rai was passionate and resolute enough to reform the judicial system.
Citing an evaluation released by civic groups on Tuesday, Kung said the Judicial Reform Foundation found that Rai had never taken part in judicial reform efforts.
KMT Legislator Chao Li-yun (趙麗雲) said Rai had yet to outline a plan to push through reforms.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩) said under the leadership of Rai and Su, the Judicial Yuan was unlikely to focus on reform, but would instead pursue Ma’s agenda.
Rai told lawmakers that he did have a passion for judicial reform.
“Without it, I would not have accepted the nomination,” he said.
“I am determined to dedicate my time and energy to judicial reform,” he said, adding that the Judicial Yuan would create a reform task force within a year to gather opinions from different sectors of society.
If he was approved, he would establish a mechanism within the Judicial Yuan to report corrupt judges and set up an exit mechanism for incompetent judges, he said.
Rai also proposed inviting representatives of the public to observe trials as soon as possible and said he would study the possibility of initiating a jury system.
The legislature held the extra plenary session to allow legislators to cross-examine the nominees on their background, knowledge of the Constitution and judiciary reform proposals. A vote on the nominations has been scheduled for tomorrow.
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