The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) should include forming a “constitutional reform committee” as a topic on the agenda of the Legislative Yuan’s extraordinary session, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Lin Wei-chou (林為洲) said yesterday.
Such a move would formally launch discussions about abolishing the Control Yuan and the Examination Yuan, Lin said.
Abolishing the two branches of government is the consensus among the ruling and opposition parties, and the DPP should heed public opinion by listing the issue as a topic for the extraordinary session, which is to begin on Monday next week, he said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The DPP caucus has only proposed reviewing bills on a “citizen judge” lay judge system and on reforming the irrigation associations, as well as Control Yuan and National Communications Commission member nominees.Just as former Yunlin County commissioner Lee Chin-yung’s (李進勇) resignation from the DPP when appointed by the Executive Yuan to head the Central Election Commission was unconvincing, former Presidential Office secretary-general Chen Chu’s (陳菊) pledge to leave the DPP to serve as Control Yuan president does not convince people, Lin wrote in a statement.
He accused Chen of “putting on a show,” as her party membership can be reinstated after she steps down as Control Yuan president.
Chen, who was Kaohsiung mayor from 2006 to 2018, achieved “embarrassingly little” for the municipality and condoned a culture of corruption among Kaohsiung City Government officials, Lin wrote.
Of the 27 people nominated by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to serve as Control Yuan members, 24 have close ties with the DPP, which runs counter to the idea of exercising their authority in a nonpartisan manner, he wrote.
Following yesterday’s cross-caucus talks, Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫堃) and DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) voiced support on Facebook for abolishing the two agencies, and if the DPP is serious about moving forward, Tsai should rescind her nominations, Lin wrote.
He questioned whether the DPP intends to hire more “hit men” like Control Yuan member Chen Shih-meng (陳師孟), who sparked an uproar in the judiciary in 2018 when he said he would target judges who only try people from the pan-green camp and do nothing about people from the pan-blue camp.
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