Taiwan faces moment of truth over opposition's legislative threat to Lai
KMT and TPP's bills prompt new rebukes from legal scholars as passage looms
TAIPEI -- Taiwan's political showdown could come to a head Tuesday as opposition parties attempt to pass legislation that would undermine new President Lai Ching-te, despite a fresh chorus of calls from domestic legal scholars and international experts to drop their power struggle.
The main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) and its smaller partner the Taiwan People's Party, which together control a majority in the Legislative Yuan, have been pushing a set of bills that would give parliament sweeping investigative powers and hand them control of possibly billions of dollars in infrastructure funds. This poses a direct challenge to the Democratic Progressive Party's Lai, who only took office last week after winning the presidential election in January.
The conflict in parliament has led to physical scuffles between lawmakers that sent some to hospital. And while the opposition may succeed in ramming through the legislation, the growing backlash suggests their victory could be pyrrhic. As many as 100,000 people came out to demonstrate against the bills last Friday, while the KMT and TPP's refusal to stand down has put them at odds with Taiwan's legal community.
In a joint statement released on Monday, more than 60 Taiwanese legal experts demanded that the opposition immediately halt their sweeping changes, return the bills to the committee stage "for full consideration, and seek the opinions of experts, scholars and members of Congress in relevant fields."
"In addition to many doubts about whether [the legislation] is consistent with the constitution, there are also many contradictions," they wrote. "If all votes are continued in the second reading process without deliberation, in addition to many unconstitutional doubts, many disputes and problems will inevitably arise in the future."
The bills would add a "contempt of parliament" offense to the criminal code, force the president to answer questions from lawmakers, and take control of possibly more than 2 trillion New Taiwan dollars ($62.2 billion) for infrastructure projects in the opposition's east coast strongholds. Government officials could be jailed for up to a year for making remarks that lawmakers deem to conceal facts or be false, and as much as six months just for replying with their own questions.
The legal scholars warned that the bills not only involve the relationship between the legislature and executive, but could also impinge on the rights of ordinary people.
The Taiwan Bar Association and Taipei Bar Association have separately criticized the proposals, which protesters and critics have branded a "power grab."
The controversy has drawn unusual international attention to an ostensibly domestic matter, amid concerns that the legislation could compromise the Lai administration's ability to make security reforms and shore up defenses against China's threats. Last week, the Communist Party government in Beijing launched large-scale military drillsencircling the island of 23 million people, which it claims as its territory despite never having ruled it.
China called the drills "punishment" for Lai's pro-sovereignty inauguration speech. But Ivan Kanapathy, formerly a senior official at the U.S. National Security Council and now a prominent analyst in Washington, argued the new president's remarks did not warrant such a reaction -- and stressed the need to avoid political distractions.
"President Lai is following the path of his predecessor by upholding Taiwan's sovereignty and self-determination, denying formal independence, and extending an olive branch to Beijing," Kanapathy said. "The Taiwanese people are facing an existential external threat. The Legislative Yuan should urgently focus on defense policy instead of domestic politics," he added, in a swipe at the opposition parties.
Two former de facto U.S. envoys to Taiwan also came out against the bills last week.
But on Monday, KMT parliamentary leader Fu Kun-chi said the party is committed to returning the government's power to the people and empowering the legislature. He said the party will uphold public opinion, fight to the end, go all out, and not be afraid of any difficulties.
Nikkei Asia has invited Fu for an interview.
The opposition argues that the bills are designed to ensure "checks and balances" in line with international norms. However, an opinion article released Monday and co-authored by Daniel Twining, president of the International Republican Institute, argued that even if one concedes reforms are necessary, "the speed and the details" are "two fatal flaws" in the opposition's proposals.
"Shortly after the president's inauguration, the Legislative Yuan determined that these legislative oversight laws are urgent priorities. Yet Taiwan has thrived without these laws for decades," the authors wrote. "They are needed, but there is no urgency that demands the process be accelerated by rushing the bills through committee, skipping public readings, or forcing a vote as soon as possible."
In a stark warning, they added: "The draft legislation could enable small groups of [China]-friendly lawmakers to audit the internal records of Taiwanese civic groups monitoring Chinese Communist Party propaganda and disinformation online. Such actions would have a chilling effect on the fundamental freedoms that have been central to Taiwan's democratic resilience."
The dispute has reignited debate over the differences between Taiwan's political parties.
In a Saturday briefing at the Taiwan Foreign Correspondents' Club, Ker Chien-ming, the DPP's most senior lawmaker, said the DPP has also proposed reforms but they are different from the opposition's bills. Ker vowed to ask the Constitutional Court to strike down provisions deemed unconstitutional if the bills are forced through.
In an exclusive interview with Nikkei Asia, Ker went so far as to accuse the opposition of colluding with China to sabotage the Taiwanese government and democracy.
Chen Fang-yu, a political scientist at Soochow University in Taiwan, said that when the KMT-TPP alliance started the move to bulldoze the bills through on May 17, their lawmakers appeared surprised at how quickly the public gathered in front of the legislature. Still, they were undeterred.
"They deliberately added some clauses from the DPP version, pretending that they made a compromise with the DPP," Chen said. "However, these clauses are not relevant to any of the controversies."
The analyst added: "They don't care about public pressure because they have the majority and will pass any legislation they want. Fu Kun-chi, the KMT's caucus leader, is dominating all of the agenda."