A motion to impeach President William Lai (賴清德) would be put forward by the Legislative Yuan’s Procedure Committee tomorrow, with the legislature convening on Friday at the earliest to draft a timetable for the process, which would include many public hearings, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said yesterday.
The KMT and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) caucuses on Friday last week proposed impeaching Lai. The move came after Lai on Monday last week refused to promulgate a legislative amendment that would have allowed local governments to receive a larger share of government revenue, arguing the legislation would hurt the nation’s fiscal sustainability. Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) had declined to countersign the legislation, which Lai cited as the reason for not publicly announcing the law, normally considered to be routine.
Lo said the priority is to ensure people nationwide are fully informed about the proposed impeachment, which would require more time for public hearings.
Photo: Taipei Times
The KMT and TPP are discussing the number of hearings and venues, which would possibly be held across the country as well as at the Legislative Yuan, he said.
Lo said this is a critical moment for the nation’s constitutional democracy.
The opposition wants to ensure thorough communication with the public through hearings and other events, so people can understand that an allegedly unconstitutional president is being impeached to defend democracy, Lo said.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
The Legislative Yuan plans to invite Lai to attend and provide an explanation in line with the Act Governing the Legislative Yuan’s Power (立法院職權行使法), TPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said.
“This is not an invitation for you to give a national intelligence report, but a request for you to attend and explain in your capacity as the person being impeached,” Huang said, addressing Lai.
The provision allowing the Legislative Yuan to request the impeached person attend a hearing was passed when Lai was a legislator, not by the current legislature, Huang said.
“I do not know if Lai would claim the provision is unconstitutional and that the Legislative Yuan has no authority to invite him,” Huang said.
The opposition wants to show people that Taiwan’s hard-earned democracy and freedom have been trampled over by the Lai administration, he said.
The formal voting would only take place after public hearings in every corner of Taiwan, as they want to make sure people understand the reasons for the impeachment, he added.
This is the first time in Taiwan’s constitutional history that the Legislative Yuan has initiated an impeachment, so the procedure for Lai’s attendance still needs to be clarified, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said.
If the opposition wants Lai to appear before the Legislative Yuan, why not let him present a national intelligence report, which would benefit national development and he is willing to do, Wu said.
The motive for the opposition inviting Lai in this way might be to create a platform to insult, abuse and politically attack the president, she said.
DPP caucus chief executive Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱) said the opposition’s contradictory impeachment would make them a laughingstock, urging them to read the Constitution and recognize the Constitutional Court’s authority.
The KMT and TPP have acted with impunity since gaining the legislative majority last year, Chung said.
It is absurd that they previously advocated abolishing the Control Yuan, only to about-face and try to use it to impeach Cho, he said.
They pushed to impeach Lai while the Constitutional Court was still unable to function, and when that court ruled the amendment that paralyzed it unconstitutional, they said that ruling was invalid, he added.
Their demands are contradictory and confusing, Chung said.
The impeachment could only proceed if the opposition allows the Constitutional Court to operate and recognizes the court’s recent judgement, he said.
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