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Recall Ma¡¦s
legislators to make him listen
By Lu Shih-hsiang ¿c¥@²»
After 250,000 ¡§white shirt¡¨ protesters hit the streets earlier this month,
public calls for reform have become stronger. Civic groups have proposed
starting a movement to ¡§recall President Ma Ying-jeou¡¦s [°¨^¤E] legislators¡¨ in
which they are focusing on Ma¡¦s ¡§party-state legislators¡¨ who are only
interested in the will of the party instead of the will of the people. This
movement is aimed at initiating a recall petition against Ma¡¦s accomplices that
help him run his party-state against the public will and kicking them out of the
legislature.
After five years in power, Ma has made a mess of national policy. While Ma, with
his incompetence and arbitrary way of doing things, is the main culprit, his
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators have assisted him and are also
responsible for this state of affairs.
The things that Ma has been most criticized for over the past year, such as the
price hikes in fuel and electricity, the importation of US beef and the
reintroduction of a capital gains tax on securities transactions, were all
proposed by him and directed through the legislature by his legislators. He is
now planning to use the same method to force the cross-strait service trade
agreement and the proposed referendum on the continued construction of the
Fourth Nuclear Power Plant through the legislature, and all he needs to do that
is the cooperation of the KMT¡¦s legislative majority.
These party-state legislators did not begin to betray public opinion and ignore
public welfare only when Ma came into power. When the KMT lost power in the 2000
presidential election, they used their legislative majority to boycott
everything the DPP tried to get through and set no limit to the political havoc
they would cause.
For a long period of time, the KMT even blocked military procurements from the
US that were necessary for Taiwan to stand up to China¡¦s military rise. This has
caused an imbalance in military power on either side of the Taiwan Strait
putting Taiwan in a disadvantaged position.
Ma¡¦s approval rating is just over 10 percent; however, he still does whatever he
feels like when it comes to policy. To pull this off, he relies on his voting
army in the legislature. Regardless of how much the public disapproves of
something, Ma is happy as long as things get voted through. Although his actions
run counter to public opinion, there is nothing society can do. Therefore,
recalling ¡§Ma¡¦s legislators¡¨ would be the most concrete way of getting Ma to
listen to public opinion.
Democracy should not just be about elections and we cannot afford to ignore our
elected representatives when they start to mess things up just because we have
already cast our vote. Although the civil right of recall is clearly prescribed
in Constitution, it is merely words on a scrap of paper. Now that the public is
demanding reform so earnestly, focusing on the legislative support for Ma¡¦s
party-state is a prerequisite to bringing about a true constitutional democracy.
In this process, the public needs to look carefully at what the legislators they
have entrusted with the right to represent them are doing, listen to what they
say and watch how they vote to check if they are living up to the public¡¦s
expectations. If we find legislators that are not living up to what we expect of
them, we can recall those who have been delinquent in their duties and expel
them.
If this campaign were to develop positively it would be a concrete manifestation
of how the public is waking up to the need to reform. This is the only chance to
put Taiwan¡¦s politics back on track and make it place the public first. Although
the threshold for recall is high, it is without a doubt something worthy of
working toward.
Lu Shih-hsiang is an adviser to the Taipei Times.
Translated by Drew Cameron
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