Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: Brian Hioe
THE KMT STOKED outrage yesterday after the KMT legislative caucus again circumvented committee review to advance a bill to its second reading.
This takes place shortly after protests in Taiwan on a scale not seen in a decade. These demonstrations broke out because of efforts by the KMT to expand legislative power in a means that would allow legislators to summon private individuals, workers in government, civil society, and companies for questioning. Those who refuse to comply, lie, or even speak back to legislators could face fines or jail time.
Part of the reason why the laws pushed for by the KMT stoked such fears was because of the possibility that the powers would be used by legislators to carry out partisan grudges. Likewise, the new powers could be used to coerce trade secrets or military secrets from company executives or government officials, at a time when KMT lawmakers have faced scrutiny for leaking military secrets to China.
To this extent, public outrage was stoked not only by the contents of the bill, but that the KMT had skipped committee review to advance the bill to its second reading. Moreover, voting was conducted through raising hands, criticized as adding to the lack of transparency, given that the legislature has 113 seats.
Anger about the “black box” means by which the KMT advanced the new legislative powers reminded of outrage a decade ago in the series of events known as the Sunflower Movement. The movement broke out against a trade agreement that the KMT aimed to sign with China, the Cross-Strait Services Trade Agreement, with the KMT skipping committee review to declare the bill passed.
Protests against the KMT’s recent actions escalated dramatically, from a spontaneous overnight demonstration of several hundred on May 17th to more than 100,000 on May 24th in what has come to be termed the “Bluebird Movement.” Although demonstrations were eventually unsuccessful in preventing the bill from passing, there have been calls for organizing recalls of KMT legislators since then.
Bluebird Movement demonstration on Tuesday. Photo credit: Brian Hioe
Even so, the KMT has clearly not learned its lesson. The bill that the KMT legislative caucus sought to advance was specifically to raise the benchmarks for a recall. Though the KMT claims that this is to prevent “revenge recalls”, such as has occurred in past years with the lowering of benchmarks for recalls, this has been criticized as politically motivated to protect the KMT. Nevertheless, the KMT had already been hoping to raise the benchmarks for a recall before the present political controversy, with Keelung mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang facing a possible recall.
When news of the KMT’s actions broke out, it pulled its efforts to raise benchmarks for recall. Yet this seems to indicate that the KMT may again undertake a course of action that outrages the public in a manner that again leads to protest.
Indeed, in this timeframe, the KMT has again sought to introduce the idea of reviving the Special Investigation Division (SID) and subordinating this not to the Ministry of Justice but the legislature. The SID was used to investigate cases of political corruption in the past, including against former president Chen Shui-bian, and the KMT likely hopes to target DPP legislators with it.
Of course, the idea of subordinating the SID to legislative power would be because of the fact that the KMT is unable to win presidential elections at present, and has sought to use the legislature as its means of exercising power instead. This is also why the KMT has sought to arrogate powers that normally belong to the executive branch of government to the legislature through its expansion of powers.
It does not appear that the Bluebird Movement has dissuaded the KMT for efforts to use its current slight majority in combination with the TPP to steamroll laws through the legislature. It is likely that KMT actions will stoke anger down the line, then.