Source: Straight News
Source: Taiwan media
Straight News: What do you think about the fact that the representatives of the blue, white and green camps once again got together in the Taiwan legislature on the 17th?
Special Commentator Liu Heping: I think people who have been paying attention to the political situation on the island should be accustomed to seeing such a phenomenon, because the brawls between the blue and green representatives of the people's will in the legislature have long become a unique scenery on the island.
However, what I want to say is that this normalized phenomenon of group beatings in Taiwan's legislature actually has a pattern to follow, and it is like a tidal tide that rises and falls, with high tides and low tides. Eight years ago, the phenomenon of mass beatings by representatives of the people's will in Taiwan's legislature was not only very obvious, but also more intense. In the past eight years, the phenomenon of mass beatings by public opinion representatives in Taiwan's legislature has been relatively low and is at a relatively low ebb.
Why is there such an ebb and flow phenomenon? In fact, there is a pattern behind this. Eight years ago, when both Chen Shui-bian and Ma Ying-jeou were in power, the KMT firmly occupied the majority position in Taiwan's legislature, while the DPP was in a weak position. During Tsai Ing-wen's eight years in power, the DPP was the executive branch, the legislative, and the judiciary in one of its powers, and it belonged to the absolute majority party in Taiwan's legislature. So now, after the 2024 election of the leader and the representative of the people's will in the Taiwan region, although Lai Qingde was elected, although the DPP has the executive power on the island, it has lost the leading power in the Taiwan legislature, and the KMT has become the majority party in the Taiwan legislature. From this, we can see that whether or not the phenomenon of fights and brawls in Taiwan's legislature will become commonplace, and whether it will even evolve into a "Roman arena," mainly depends on whether the DPP can control the legislative power.
When the DPP is the majority party in Taiwan's legislature, especially when it occupies an absolute majority, they will choose the rules of procedure of "counting the heads," and when the DPP becomes a minority party, they will choose the tyranny of the minority and block the progress of the rules of procedure by "beating the heads of people." From this, we can see that the DPP, which was born from the grassroots, still cannot get rid of the wolf culture.
Straight News: Before Lai Qingde really took office, the blue, white and green representatives in the Taiwan legislature were in a mess, what kind of impact will this have on the future political situation on the island?
Special Commentator Liu Heping: I believe that the resurgence of mass beatings by public opinion representatives in Taiwan's legislature reflects at least two problems: First, we know that the test of the level of democracy and rule of law in a place is mainly to see whether the local government can finally bring all political differences and disputes into the track of fairness, justice and openness of democracy and the rule of law, or whether they can be incorporated into the system and resolved through laws and systems.
However, more than 30 years after the so-called democratization, the phenomenon of "beating the heads instead of several heads" still often occurs on the island, and the differences are still often resolved by means outside the system. At the very least, this means that the island's democracy and rule of law literacy are not as good as they boast and can be a model for others. Second, this phenomenon also shows that more than 30 years after the completion of the political transition, the blue-green ideological differences and struggles on the island not only show no signs of easing, but also as Lai Qingde and the Democratic Progressive Party win the election of the leader of the Taiwan region but lose control of the legislature, that is, with the separation of legislative and executive powers on the island, it will become more intense.
Such a phenomenon will bring about two major problems: First, the phenomenon of the three major political forces, blue, white, and green, in Taiwan's legislature is seriously antagonistic and intransigent in Taiwan's legislature, which is very likely to lead to the idling of Taiwan's legislature in the next four years. Yesterday's fight between blue, white, and green representatives of the people's will has already indicated that vicious political struggles within Taiwan's legislature will become the norm. Second, the separation of executive and legislative powers caused by this election, as well as the resulting intensified confrontation between the executive and legislative powers, indicate that Lai Qingde's path to power in the next four years will be difficult to move forward.
Source: Taiwan media
Straight News: The group beating of the blue, white and green representatives of the public opinion was caused by the legislative reform bill jointly launched by the blue and white sides. What do you think about this?
Special Commentator Liu Heping: I believe that in fact, the essence of the series of reform bills jointly launched by the Kuomintang and the People's Party of Taiwan's legislature, including normalizing the behavior of the leader of the Taiwan region in reporting to the legislature, adding relevant provisions on the legislature's investigative and hearing powers, adding the Criminal Law to the crime of contempt of the legislature, and strengthening the right to consent to personnel, are all aimed at expanding the power of the Taiwan legislature itself and weakening and restricting the power of the executive branch.
Or to put it more bluntly, it is to weaken and limit the power of Lai Qingde, who is about to come to power, and make Taiwan's legislature the real boss. This is because after several decades of action, the political system on the island does have the phenomenon that the executive power, or the power of the leader of the Taiwan region, is excessive, while the power of the Taiwan legislature is relatively weak.
This is mainly reflected in the following: First, the leader of the Taiwan region can exercise his power at will, but he does not have to accept the supervision of the legislature, does not need to make routine reports to the legislature, and does not even have to accept questions from the legislature; Second, the appointment and dismissal of the leaders of various ministries and commissions by the leader of the Taiwan region does not require the consent of the Taiwan legislature. During the past eight years of Tsai Ing-wen's administration, this contradiction has been covered up because the DPP has completely controlled the executive and legislative powers on the island, but now there is a phenomenon of separation between the executive and legislative powers on the island, and the DPP has grasped the executive power and the Kuomintang has taken control of the legislative power, so this contradiction has become acutely apparent. The Kuomintang, which has seized the legislative power, is bound to join hands with the People's Party to carve up and weaken Lai Ching-de's executive power.
It is worth noting that this controversy actually involves a fundamental political issue on the island, and it is the result of a fundamental flaw in the design of the island's political system. If the leader of the Taiwan region is not directly elected by the people, but the people first elect the largest party in the legislature, and then the largest party in the legislature becomes the leader of the Taiwan region, this problem will not exist, because the executive and legislative powers have been unified. However, both the leader of the Taiwan region and Taiwan's representatives of the people's will are directly elected by the people, and both are directly responsible to the voters and not to the other party, and this may lead to the phenomenon of separation of powers, as well as the phenomenon of the executive and legislative powers "grabbing power" from each other.
Author丨Liu Heping, special commentator of Shenzhen Satellite TV's "Live Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan".