Relocating the Legislative Yuan is an issue that has often been raised over the past two decades, and despite a long history of debate, decision, but no firm action, the issue is once more in the spotlight, after Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) brought it up again on Wednesday.
One reason the matter is receiving a renewed examination is that the Taipei City Government owns the land on which the legislature is located, and has been sending out notifications asking for the return of the land. The Legislative Yuan pays NT$50 million (US$1.6 million) to the Taipei City Government in annual rent for the land.
Prior to the election for legislative speaker on Wednesday morning, Wang said the Legislative Yuan is a symbol of democracy, and his proposal to relocate the legislature was in the hopes of jump-starting discussion among relevant bodies.
If the relocation of the Legislative Yuan is to be implemented, the process of planning and construction would take many years, said Wang, adding that as such, the newly elected legislators for the eighth term of the legislature, sworn in on Wednesday, would not be around when the time came to use the facility, hence there would be no issue of them personally profiting from the relocation.
The Legislative Yuan entertained thoughts of relocation as early as its first term, but in the 20 years since there have been two attempts made, but without success.
The legislature’s Expenditure Examination Committee first proposed in 1990 that the Legislative Yuan be moved to the site of the old Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) Huashan Station. The proposal was passed two years later, in 1992, and in 1994 the central government’s annual budget allotted the Legislative Yuan NT$10 billion for construction at its new site.
However, the relocation plans were effectively terminated when the legislature reviewed the budget during its second term and the opposition blocked the funding.
The Huashan relocation plans were also controversial and attacked by members of the legislature and the public alike as being excessively luxurious. The plans called for a Speaker’s room of more than 100 ping (1 ping is 3.3m2), over 30 ping for each legislator’s personal office and 50 ping for each lawmaker’s research room — not to mention multi-functional ball courts, warm water swimming pools and saunas.
The Legislative Yuan scratched the plans and instead set its sights on land that currently houses the Ministry of National Defense’s Air Force Command Headquarters in Taipei. The Air Force Command Headquarters, along with the ministry, is being relocated to Dazhi District (大直) in order to centralize the nation’s military command capacities and also to comply with the ministry’s policy of cutting down on military personnel and budgets.
The land the Air Force HQ will be leaving behind, on Renai Rd Sec 3, is a 7.2 hectare block exceptional for both its size and prime location.
The Taipei City Government says it wishes to use the land to build social housing, and the Judicial Yuan has also expressed its wish to use the land to establish a “Judicial Park” and unite the scattered Northern Taiwan courts and offices in a single area.
However, the Legislative Yuan, during its third term, went ahead with its plan to build on the land. The new plan called for a revamped Legislative Yuan with an increase to 225 seats from the fourth term onward.
The increase was due to the Taiwan provincial government having been frozen in 1998, following the fourth constitutional amendment, due to the overlap of the administrative powers of democratically-elected provincial governors and presidents.
In 1997, the Executive Yuan listed a NT$24.1 billion “special budget for the construction of the new Legislative Yuan,” with NT$10.3 billion for purchasing the land and NT$13.8 billion for construction.
Construction was estimated to take two years and the budget was passed in 1999.
However the plans were stonewalled by the eighth term of Taipei City councilors, and the special budget funding, after being held for five more years after its expiration date, was finally canceled because the construction had not yet started.
The current term of legislators seems to hold an open mind on the relocation of the Legislative Yuan, and is amenable to further discussion of the issue.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus director-general Pan Men-an (潘孟安) said it was true that the Legislative Yuan building is functionally unsuitable, particularly because of the scattered offices.
Construction of a new building should only be further discussed once changes to the function of the Legislative Yuan had been addressed, Pan said, adding that if the main objective of relocation was to give the building a more presentable exterior, it really wasn’t needed.
DPP Legislator Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said he would be proposing that a special cross-party committee be set up to push for the relocation of the Legislative Yuan by installments, adding a request to the Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) administration to keep an open mind and respect the Legislative Yuan.
People First Party (PFP) convener Thomas Lee (李桐豪) said that it was amazing that current location and structure of the Legislative Yuan, designed as a temporary solution, had actually been kept for the past six decades.
“The Legislative Yuan symbolizes the development and spirit of democracy in the country, and it does not need grandiosity, but functionality,” Lee said, adding that the discussion of the relocation of the Legislative Yuan should not be focusing on the issue of cost and overheads of the construction itself, but rather on the intangible representation of spirit and symbolism.
Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) caucus convener Hsu Chun-hsin (許忠信) said that the relocation of the legislature would require massive funding, and as the government has hit the debt ceiling, “the TSU does not agree to the relocation under the present unfavorable financial conditions.”
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus said no new plan had as yet been made for the relocation of the Legislative Yuan.
Translated by Jake Chung, Staff Writer
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