The legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee is slated to review more than a dozen bills proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) today that it says would reform the legislature. However, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said that the proposals are unconstitutional and would push Taiwan back into an authoritarian regime.
Out of the more than 20 bills related to legislative reform, 17 were proposed by the KMT.
KMT legislators Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆), Wu Tsung-hsien (吳宗憲) and Weng Hsiao-ling (翁曉玲) proposed amendments to the Act Governing the Legislative Yuan’s Power (立法院職權行使法) and the Criminal Code that would make contempt of the legislature a crime.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
This would hold government officials accountable for refusing to answer questions, not giving a definite answer and questioning the lawmakers, they said. Officials who are held in contempt of the legislature would be sentenced to up to three years in prison and fined NT$300,000.
Wu, Weng and KMT Legislator Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) also proposed an amendment that would require the president to submit a “State of the Nation” report by Feb. 1 and give a similar address to legislators before March 1. When lawmakers raise questions, the president should also instantly answer them, the draft states.
Other proposed amendments include giving the legislature the right to conduct investigations, hold hearings and approve appointments of officials. The secret ballot system for the elections of legislative speaker and deputy legislative speaker would be removed as well.
The DPP caucus opposed the proposed amendments, saying that they are unconstitutional and would greatly expand legislative authority.
The proposed amendments would return Taiwan to the era of an authoritarian regime, it said, adding that it would definitely seek interpretations from the Constitutional Court and request an emergency injunction on the bills.
Based on the proposed amendments, legislators would have the right to investigate public legal entities, private legal entities, the military, agencies and groups.
Failure to accept investigation is contempt of the legislature, DPP caucus secretary-general Chuang Jui-hsiung (莊瑞雄) said yesterday.
KMT caucus is asking to hold hearings of the appointments of government officials, which infringes on the president’s and premier’s right to nominate them, said DPP Legislator Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱), who is a convener of the committee.
“The KMT and Taiwan People’s Party support that the legislature should have the right to conduct investigations and hold government officials in contempt. This would make legislative authorities transcend those of judicial and control branches,” Chung said.
“Asking the president to deliver a State of the Nation address followed by a question-and-answer session is against the division of authorities stated in the Constitution,” he added.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by