The deterioration of the legislature

 

By Chiu Hei-yuan

 

The third session of the fifth legislature concluded on June 6 with most of the reform bills shelved. The legislature's overall performance was very poor -- lawmakers either defended their own parties' interests or sought their own personal gain. It is very worrying that the legislature has deteriorated to this point.

 

There are a number of political, economic, judicial and public health issues that need to be addressed. A great number of bills related to reform need to be passed. But the DPP is too weak to get the reforms passed in the face of the opposition's obstruction.

 

The history of three reform bills -- for the Judicial Yuan, media and finance -- demonstrate that lawmakers are the root cause of the reforms being stalled.

 

After long-term discussions, a practical proposal for judicial reform was finally presented in the National Judicial Reform conference in 1999. Major judicial reforms would start with amendments to the Organic Law of the Judicial Yuan.

 

In October 2001, the Council of Grand Justices issued Interpretation No. 530: "In order to be consistent with the original purpose of the Constitution, which considers the Judicial Yuan to be the highest judicial adjudicative organ, the Organic Law of the Judicial Yuan, the Law of the Court Organization, the Organic Law of the Administrative Court, and the Organic Law of the Committee on Disciplinary Sanctions of Functionaries must be reviewed and revised in accordance with the designated constitutional structure two years after the publication of this interpretation."

 

Revisions to the Organic Law of the Judicial Yuan were sent to the legislature last October. High-ranking officials in the Judicial Yuan worked to push for the revisions. Private organizations promoting judicial reform also spared no effort to help.

 

Judicial Yuan President Weng Yueh-sheng, who is highly respected in legal and political circles, recently made an appeal to the legislature, hoping that revisions to this law could be passed. However, he failed to gain support from the KMT and PFP leadership. Lawmakers of these two parties even held up the judicial reform bill in an attempt to twist the Council of Grand Justices' constitutional interpretation.

 

The fact that the KMT and PFP blocked the revisions reveals that these parties still oppose reform. Judicial reform is a national reconstruction project that private organizations have sought for a long time. Former president Lee Teng-hui) also sees it as one of the major reform programs after political reform.

 

Former Judicial Yuan president Shih Chi-yang started the reforms. Weng, after taking office, has made every endeavor to continue with the reforms. Now, as the momentum of reforms was about to speed up, it was halted by the KMT and PFP. Apparently, the pan-blue camp has inherited the conservative anti-reform tradition.

 

To foster more aggressive cooperation in the next presidential election, these parties have turned the legislative floor into a battlefield. They cooperated, taking advantage of their legislative majority to obstruct the passage of reform-related bills, especially those involving large political or partisan interests.

 

Their cooperation is reminiscent of the atmosphere when the KMT was in power, but there also exists a big difference. Now in opposition, they are blocking reforms. When they were in power, they delayed the reforms.

 

The public has expected the DPP to demonstrate its prowess and carry out reforms. But hindered by the KMT and PFP, it has found itself at its wits' end and powerless to push for reform. The performance of the DPP's legislative caucus and lawmakers was very disappointing.

 

In particular, revisions to the three laws governing broadcasting and television, which had been endorsed by the KMT and PFP, failed to pass because of opposition from within the DPP. By using the TSU and his allies within the party, DPP Legislator Trong Chai easily stalled the media-reform bills.

 

The refusal of the TSU and the alliance of independent lawmakers to sign the negotiation results was the main reason for the setback, but what is more important is that political horse-trading was involved.

 

Media reconstruction is a major reform the DPP chairman has promised to promote. Since party-reform policies were established more than three months ago, the DPP chairman, headquarters and legislative caucus apparently have not worked hard to eliminate anti-reform voices inside the party. The DPP must conduct a deep review of its failure to push for media reform policies and undertake a detailed investigation.

 

Many bills concerning economic and financial reforms were also stalled by the legislature. Along with opposition parties' hinderance in the budget review for state-run businesses, these have greatly harmed economic and financial reforms.

 

Pan-blue lawmakers' obstruction is meant to undermine the government's performance in a bid to gain advantage in the presidential election, but there is still ample room for the Cabinet, the DPP and its legislative caucus to work.

 

The legislature is now the biggest obstacle in the nation's politics, economy and even social development. During the recent session, the legislature ended up becoming a battlefield for partisan struggles and the seeking of personal gain. Its overall performance was poor.

 

Although the public can do nothing about it, they will remember this as a bad time.

 

Chiu Hei-yuan is a research fellow at Academia Sinica's Institute of Sociology and a member of the Taipei Society.

 

 

Kao represents Beijing, not Taiwan

 

Nobody could accuse PFP Legislator Kao Ming-chien of inconsistency. For weeks he has been doing everything he can to aid and abet China in its attempt to use the SARS crisis to underline its territorial claims to Taiwan. His latest action -- taking part in the international SARS conference in Kuala Lumpur as a delegate for China -- is no exception.

 

Taiwan has, of course, been struggling to participate in this conference organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) and little wonder, given that the nation is the third hardest-hit by the virus. All along China has put obstacles in Taiwan's way which might well have cost Taiwanese lives.

 

China's own behavior as the originator of the SARS virus, which it tried so hard to cover up, has earned it international opprobrium. But its behavior toward Taiwan should cause an international outcry. It has, at the same time, both blocked Taiwan's access to WHO aid and expertise, while claiming that, as the legitimate sovereign of Taiwan -- a claim it bases on the craven acceptance by most of the world's governments of its "one China" blackmail -- it has the responsibility for looking after Taiwan's health, and has discharged this responsibility well.

 

Kao has played a key part in Beijing's attempt to sustain this absurdity, holding two video conferences with Chinese SARS experts last month, so that his real constituency -- namely Zhongnanhai -- can use these events to back up its outrageous claims. Now this Chinese agent, who sits as a representative of the Taiwanese people but, as an at-large legislator, has not actually had a single vote cast for him in Taiwan, is busy again in Kuala Lumpur trying to belittle this country and weaken its international position.

 

Center for Disease Control Director-General Su Ih-jen said yesterday that Taiwan's participation in the conference was a red-letter day, marking the first time that it had been allowed to participate in a WHO-arranged function for 30 years. Su was talking up a rather weak hand. After all, why was it that of the five countries and one region asked to present reports on their SARS experiences on the confer-ence's first day, Taiwan, which has more experience of the disease than at least half of those making reports, was absent? Taiwan was not given the status of a SARS-hit country or even territory at the conference, but merely a place from which there were some people who knew something about SARS.

 

We cannot but help feel that with SARS under control here, the WHO needs Taiwan now far more than Taiwan needs the WHO. In the early days of the outbreak, when pooled expertise was important, the global body did everything it could not to provide this information to Taipei for purely political reasons. Now the WHO wants to show that it is on top of SARS, it is the WHO's need for information that is greater than Taiwan's need for help. If it needs this information it should, as our mothers told it, have to ask nicely. Why should Taiwan give its knowledge away to a body that won't even address it by name.

 

In this light it is about time that people who care about this country's stature -- which, of course excludes the pan-blue camp and about 80 percent of the media -- stopped indulging the government in its spinelessness, stopped suggesting that any nod from exclusive clubs of "sovereign nations" to the Taiwanese begger at their door was worth having. It would have been better for Taiwan not to send an official delegation at all. That would have made Kao's status as an agent of China all the more obvious. As for what to do with Kao himself, let Taiwanese patriots take off the kid gloves and show that Beijing dupes like him are no longer welcome in the legislature or, in fact, in this nation.

 

 

PFP lawmaker to sit by China's side

 

WHO: Legislator Kao Ming-chien is on the same list to attend the conference in Kuala Lumpur as China's SARS officials from Shanxi and Hebei provinces

 

By Melody Chen

STAFF REPORTER IN KUALA LUMPUR

 

The World Health Organization (WHO) invited PFP Legislator Kao Ming-chien to attend the Global Conference on SARS in Kuala Lumpur because of China's recommendation, an unnamed official confirmed yesterday.

 

Kao was among the last group of experts recommended by China to the WHO to join the conference and most experts of the group on the same list were from China's Shanxi and Hebei Provinces, where SARS cases have been reported, sources said.

 

Taiwan's delegation to Kuala Lumpur, headed by Director of Center for Disease Control (CDC) Su Ih-jen, would not comment on Kao's controversial participation in the conference.

 

Before the delegation's departure for Malaysia, the Cabinet clearly stated that Kao was not a member of the delegation. Kao arrived at Kuala Lumpur yesterday, whereas the government's delegation arrived on Sunday.

 

The two-day SARS conference kicks off today in Malaysia's Sunway Lagoon Resort Hotel, close to the nation's capital city Kuala Lumpur. Participants from 192 countries will be joining the conference on the 21st century's first emerging disease.

 

The Department of Health recommended four Taiwanese experts to attend the conference. The WHO accepted all four.

 

Two of them, Chang Shang-chwen and Chen Pei-jer, were doctors at National Taiwan University Hospital.

 

The doctors lost their opportunity to attend the conference, however, because they -- after having handled SARS patients -- did not have enough time to isolate themselves for 10 days to fulfill the conference's health regulations for participants from affected areas.