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EDITORIAL: Control
Yuan’s worth in doubt
There is a feeling of discontent pervading Taiwan of late, with mass street
protests over the death of army corporal Hung Chung-chiu (洪仲丘) and the forced
demolitions of houses in Miaoli County’s Dapu Borough (大埔) precipitating a
Cabinet reshuffle. Even the Control Yuan, usually so reluctant to get involved
in the news, has made headlines over its failure to impeach Keelung Mayor Chang
Tong-rong (張通榮).
The affair started when Chang attempted to intervene in the case of a woman
accused of drunk driving. Chang was caught on video — later posted on YouTube —
lambasting the police over the case. The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT)
Evaluation and Discipline Committee suspended Chang for three months, while a
court found him guilty of influence peddling and sentenced him to one year and
eight months in prison.
Despite a consensus that Chang acted inappropriately, and irrespective of the
fact he was found guilty, the Control Yuan failed to vote to impeach him, twice.
Angered and frustrated, Control Yuan President Wang Chien-shien (王建煊) was moved
to tell the media that perhaps the nation would be better off without the
Control Yuan, saying it was a body in which people were given positions as
political rewards. His remarks were condemned by 19 Control Yuan members.
At this point, legislators entered the fray, with some even proposing a
constitutional amendment to abolish the Control Yuan, reducing the
constitutional branches of the government to three and transferring its powers
of investigation and oversight to the legislature.
With some officials bent on dismantling the government, President Ma Ying-jeou
(馬英九), currently overseas, was obliged to make an urgent telephone call home to
try to calm the situation before things got out of hand.
The Control Yuan only has itself to blame. Chang’s behavior was there for all to
see on YouTube and any normal person could see that he did not have a leg to
stand on, morally speaking.
Prosecutors thought Chang’s behavior sufficiently dubious to take him to court,
where he was found guilty of abusing his position, and although he has yet to
appeal, the criminality of his actions is apparent.
After much discussion, Control Yuan members voted on two occasions not to
impeach him, although they have not publicly said why. The vote not only failed
to meet public expectations, it also runs counter to the law and might not be
welcomed even within the KMT.
Such a result was always going to stir up doubt among the public about the
effectiveness of the Control Yuan. Rumors of Chang paying for dinners for
Control Yuan members have only added to this.
The Control Yuan has 29 members. The annual bill for their combined salaries is
NT$76.7 million (US$2.56 million), an average of NT$2.64 million each.
Since 2008 the Control Yuan has cost the taxpayer NT$4.5 billion, investigating
200 impeachments, each costing on average NT$22.5 million. Most of the officials
investigated have been relatively small fry, and 70 percent got off with a
reprimand.
Far from bagging tigers, the Control Yuan finds swatting flies challenging, and
when it features in the news, it is mostly for members criticizing each other.
Ironically, the biggest beast it has brought down recently was its own former
secretary-general, Chen Feng-yi (陳豐義), early last month.
The Control Yuan does not enjoy a great reputation at the best of times. Its
members do not have anything like the integrity and fortitude of people like Tao
Pai-chuan (陶百川), a Control Yuan member in the Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) era who did
not fear authority and dared to speak his mind when it came to rooting out
corruption and correcting government policy.
No wonder many people feel that the Control Yuan’s golden age was in the days of
former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), whose member nomination list was blocked
in the legislature for so long by the KMT that the Control Yuan was memberless
for years.
Taiwanese just do not need it.
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