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Taiwan is better off
without the Control Yuan
By Lu I-ming 呂一銘
The Control Yuan has caused an uproar by twice voting down a motion to impeach
Keelung Mayor Chang Tong-rong (張通榮) after he was convicted for persuading police
to release a woman arrested for drunk driving. Even before this case, it was
clear that the Control Yuan could not be expected to tackle “tigers” in the
central government.
The Control Yuan no longer has the power to impeach the president, since that
has been handed over to the legislature. It is obvious that the Control Yuan is
also incapable of doing anything about local “snakes” or even swatting a few
“flies.”
No wonder even Control Yuan President Wang Chien-shien (王建煊) says that if the
Control Yuan cannot uphold fairness and justice, it might as well close down.
Perhaps Taiwan really would be better off without it.
The Control Yuan suspended its work between 2005 and 2008 because of political
deadlock over nominations, and its performance since it restarted has not been
impressive. To make matters worse, news reports about the questionable behavior
of certain Control Yuan members have further sullied its reputation.
Looking back on those years when there were no Control Yuan members, their
absence did not affect the operation of government departments much. The only
problem, really, was that complaints and petitions submitted by members of the
public began to pile up. As for cases of illegal acts or breaches of discipline
by government officials, when the Control Yuan was not there to deal with them,
prosecution and judicial departments handled them instead and meted out
punishments in accordance with the law.
The Control Yuan’s supervisory work includes applying impeachments, censures and
corrections, as well as accepting and processing complaints and petitions from
the public and carrying out tours of inspection. It handles civil servants’
property declarations, verifies political donation declarations and has the
power of audit. All these functions and powers could be transferred to existing
departments of the judiciary and legislature, such as the Judicial Yuan’s Agency
Against Corruption. An independent power of audit could be maintained as it is
in Europe and the US. Personnel qualified for service in the Control Yuan could
be deployed to other government departments, where they could help fight
corruption while avoiding accusations of political patronage.
Taiwan has experienced a series of amendments to its Constitution, so there is
no need to make excuses about all the fuss and trouble further amendments might
cause. What is to stop the government and opposition parties from seriously
reviewing and reforming the system?
The nation’s five-branched constitutional system could be changed into a
three-branched one. That would make the whole system a lot more transparent and
allow personnel and financial costs to be cut. It would raise efficiency and
benefit the public by eliminating duplicated functions in executive, legislative
and judicial departments.
It might also be possible to revamp the much-criticized system for electing
constituency and at-large legislators, and even to amend the Referendum Act
(公投法), to make these systems better suit the needs of the public.
That would be a sensible course to take. Rather than always criticizing the
Control Yuan for its failings, it would be better to amend the Constitution to
abolish the Control Yuan and Examination Yuan. The country and the public would
certainly benefit from such a change.
Lu I-ming is a former publisher and president of Taiwan Shin Sheng Daily
News.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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