A coalition of civic groups yesterday called for the drafting of a new constitution to reflect the current political reality, as President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) held a low-key inauguration ceremony to mark the start of her second term in office.
The coalition urged the president to shoulder the historic mission of writing a new constitution, leading the way by consolidating the collective will and aspiration of Taiwanese, and forging a new national identity, along with the right to self-determination.
“We need to draft a new constitution, and through the process, Taiwanese can create a new republic,” Economic Democracy Union convener Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) told a media briefing in Taipei.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
“What we do not need is more rounds of ‘constitutional amendments,’” he added, after Tsai in her inaugural address announced plans to set up a constitutional amendment committee in the Legislative Yuan that would serve as a platform to address government reforms and better protect people’s rights.
Lai and other civic groups have described the Republic of China Constitution as anachronistic and not reflecting the political reality in Taiwan, as it was imposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) military dictatorship on Taiwanese after it lost the Chinese Civil War and fled to Taiwan in 1949. Its constitutional framework was based on China’s overall population and territories, which consisted of 35 provinces at the time.
Over the past three decades, Taiwan has undergone a lot of changes on the way to democratization after martial law was lifted, “but this democratic transition has not yet been completed, because Taiwanese do not have their own constitution,” he said.
DPP Legislator Fan Yun (范雲), representing the Social Democratic Party, which she founded, said the new constitution should lower the voting age to 18, and protect the rights of disadvantaged and underprivileged groups.
Taiwan had gone through seven rounds of constitutional amendments, but “the fallacy in the ROC Constitution as the governing power ruling over the population and territories of China remains, which some politicians have exploited to push for closer union with China, through the so-called ‘1992 consensus’ and the ‘one country, two systems’ framework,” Academia Sinica law professor Chiou Wen-tsong (邱文聰) said.
Also joining the call for a new consitution were the Taiwan Citizen Front Taiwan Youth Association for Democracy; the Taiwan Association of University Professors; the National Students’ Union of Taiwan; Taiwan Democracy Watch; Citizen of the Earth, Taiwan, Taiwan; the Association for Human Rights; and the Taiwan Labor Front.
“Taiwanese have shown vigorous growth and are forging a new national identity, despite China’s unending threats of military invasion and annexation, and the menace of the Wuhan virus outbreak. It is now the time to draft a new constitution for a democratic Taiwan and to be liberated the from the shackles of the ‘one China’ policy, to enable us as free people of a new nation to participate as an equal member of the international community,” Taiwan Citizen Front spokesman Chiang Min-yen (江旻諺) said.
This story has been corrected since it was first published.
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