Taiwan People's Party Pushes To Abolish Government Watchdog

TaiwanPlus News

Taiwan's smaller opposition Taiwan People's Party is pushing to abolish Taiwan's government watchdog, a distinct branch of the government called the Control Yuan. The proposal has passed the first stage with a quarter of the country's lawmakers signing off on it, but there is a very high bar to effect a constitutional change, as would be needed.

Transcript

00:00Taiwan's smaller opposition, Taiwan People's Party, is calling for the government to do away with the Control Yuan, the government watchdog.

00:08It comes amid accusations that officials there have been misusing public resources.

00:13Leslie Liao has been following the story for us and joins us now from our Taipei newsroom.

00:17Leslie, what's behind this push to remove the Control Yuan?

00:20Hi, Jeremy. So, Taiwan People's Party Chair and Lawmaker Huang Guocang has put forth a proposal to abolish Taiwan's Control Yuan,

00:32a branch of government that has the power to impeach, censure, and audit government officials and is supposed to act impartially.

00:40The TPP says, though, that now the DPP, the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, is using the Control Yuan as a pawn. Have a listen.

00:50Because the檢察院 is too useful, the檢察院 can take advantage of its own people,

00:56and it can also be used to be a military tool to attack the enemy's enemy.

01:02So, this proposal has already passed its first hurdle.

01:05At least a quarter of Taiwan's 113 legislators have co-signed the bill with the help of the main opposition, Guomingdang,

01:14meaning that Huang's proposal can now move on to the next stage.

01:18So, Leslie, Control Yuan members are usually elected by the president.

01:23How is the ruling Democratic Progressive Party responding to these calls?

01:30Yeah, Jeremy. So, this is the interesting part.

01:32The DPP previously has actually endorsed abolishing the Control Yuan as well,

01:38saying that it's an antiquated branch of government and that it's no longer needed.

01:42But now, the party is questioning the intention and it timing behind this current push to abolish the Control Yuan.

01:50DPP Legislative Caucus Secretary General Wu Ziyao says,

01:54this is all part of a plan to consolidate power in Taiwan's opposition-held legislature.

01:59Now, earlier, I spoke to Courtney Donovan-Smith, who's a political analyst down in central Taiwan,

02:20to learn more about the Control Yuan and this campaign to get rid of it.

02:24Here's part of our conversation.

02:25Can you tell us a little bit about what the Control Yuan does and is it an entity that's exclusive to Taiwan's government?

02:32The Control Yuan is the, in Taiwan, it's the only one in the world.

02:37Taiwan has a unique five branches of government arrangement, which also includes the Examination Yuan.

02:46And the purpose of these two is that when Sun Yat-sen brought in the Constitution,

02:52is that the Control Yuan and the Examination Yuan reflect some Chinese imperial traditions

03:00about monitoring government officials and to avoid things like corruption and other misbehavior.

03:10Why are the opposition TPP and the Kuomintang now calling to abolish the Control Yuan?

03:15Well, not only are the TPP and parts of the KMT are looking to examine it.

03:22There was, for a while, the DPP also supported eliminating both of these branches of government.

03:29Now, the traditional criticisms, and there is some evidence to back this,

03:35is that the appointees to the Control Yuan are political.

03:40And, of course, that leads to allegations of witch hunts, for example,

03:46because their job is to independently investigate, audit,

03:51and can issue writs of impeachment against government officials.

03:55Well, the DPP is concerned, and they've expressed this, they've expressed so,

04:01that they are afraid of what they refer to it as being politicized.

04:06They also have some concerns about the powers of the Control Yuan being shifted to the legislative Yuan,

04:13which they fear will be used maliciously against the executive Yuan.

04:19Now, let's say that the Control Yuan is abolished.

04:22How would that tip the scales of political power in Taiwan, if at all?

04:26Well, this is the Constitution, so it's held to a much higher bar.

04:31You have to first, to propose it, you need one quarter of the legislature to do so,

04:38which they have already passed that hurdle.

04:40The second hurdle is then to set up a committee to examine changing the Constitution.

04:50They have to come up with a proposal, and then that requires three-quarters of the legislators to get behind it.

05:00Once that threshold is passed, which is going to be difficult, then it goes to a public vote.

05:07This is a very interesting one, because last year, the KMT and the TPP passed a law which would have passed

05:16some of the powers of both the Control Yuan and the Judicial Yuan into the hands of the legislature.

05:27So that would have allowed them to interrogate government officials in the legislature.

05:36Now, this was ruled unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court,

05:40precisely because it was taking functions allotted to other branches of government.

05:47So a lot of this, I think, would have to be hashed out in the committee.

05:51Now, the DPP, obviously, here, has veto power if they want to get to that three-quarters threshold.

05:57So what that's going to mean is they're going to have to propose, the TPP right now, it's their proposal on the board,

06:05they're going to have to propose compromises that would be acceptable to the DPP,

06:13who is, of course, the current ruling power,

06:14so that they feel that this is not, these powers could not be abused by the legislature.

06:23Now, as you heard from Courtney there just now, this is a matter of constitutional reform.

06:29And because this is a matter of constitutional reform,

06:32the bar for its passage is going to be quite high.

06:35To give you an idea of how high that bar is,

06:37well, if and when this proposal comes to a vote,

06:41three-quarters of Taiwan's 113 lawmakers need to be there for the vote.

06:45That's at least 85 lawmakers.

06:47And of the lawmakers that do show up for the vote,

06:50three-quarters have to vote in favor for this proposal to pass.

06:54Now, assuming that the minimum 85 show up,

06:57that means 64 lawmakers need to vote in favor of this proposal if it is to pass.

07:02The TPP and the KMT only hold 64 seats in the legislature.

07:07So, as it stands right now, the odds of this proposal passing are quite slim.

07:14Thanks, Leslie.

07:15That was Leslie Liao reporting from our newsroom in Taipei.

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