Taiwan legislature passes parliamentary reform amid constitutional controversies News
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Taiwan legislature passes parliamentary reform amid constitutional controversies

The Taiwan Legislative Yuan, the island’s parliament, passed controversial parliamentary reforms on Tuesday as 70,000 citizens assembled outside the parliament to protest against the changes. The cabinet, chaired by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), will send back the legislation to the Legislative Yuan for review due to concerns about how the bill was passed and vague terminology.

The legislative majority, comprising the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), passed a reform package that they say will ensure checks and balances between the legislature and the executive. Leader of the KMT, Fu Kun-chi, contended that the parliamentary reform is modeled after democratic countries that criminalize misrepresentations committed by government officials in the legislature. Leader of the TPP, Ko Wen-je, also contended that the reform package is not only necessary to establish the legislature’s oversight power but has also fulfilled its procedural requirement by undergoing two legislative committee reviews, a public hearing and “Consult Among Political Parties.”

One of the most controversial reforms concerns the provisions in the Law Governing the Legislative Yuan’s Power. DPP lawmaker Chuang Ching Cheng and Taipei City Council member Miao Poya criticized the fact that the change would require the consent of a committee’s chairperson for witnesses to have legal representation when testifying in the legislature. Miao explained that the deprivation of legal representation could potentially violate a previous constitutional court ruling that the respondents of the legislative oversight power must enjoy procedural safeguards.

A group of 123 Taiwanese legal scholars signed a statement on May 27 arguing that when people’s rights are at stake, legislative oversight power must conform to the principles of proportionality, legal certainty and procedural justice, and that the current reforms fail to meet these requirements. Scholars argued that the proposed legislative power to compel citizens to attend an investigative hearing and citizens’ lack of ability to refuse to testify or provide information pertains to the rights to personal liberty, free speech, privacy and property. The scholars also asked the legislative majority to return the bill to the legislative committee for further deliberation and review before passing the law.

The President of the Executive Yuan, Cho Jung-tai, claimed that upon receiving the final version of the amendments, the Executive Yuan will, with the President’s approval, request the legislature to reconsider the bill. The Executive Yuan is required to accept the bill if half of the legislature’s members uphold the bill. DPP Leader Ker Chien-ming also claimed that DPP lawmakers have exhausted all procedural means to slow down the legislative progress and will lodge a petition against the enacted provisions with the Constitutional Court for a judgment declaring the law unconstitutional pursuant to Article 49 of the Constitutional Court Procedural Act.

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