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Parliamentary Reform of 2008 145
Republic.” A prior constitutional amendment required
the president to deliver a State of the National message
before the National Assembly. According to the prior
amendment, the National Assembly, when it convenes,
“may hear a report on the state of the nation by the
president, review national issues, and offer recommendations.”
This power was transferred to the Legislative
Yuan in 2000 after the National Assembly was made to
convene when necessary rather than regularly. When
that power was transferred, it took at least a quarter of
the Members of the Legislative Yuan to propose a resolution
requesting the president to make a State of the
Nation message and the resolution had to be adopted at
a Legislative Yuan plenary session. If the resolution
were adopted, the steering committee of the Legislative
Yuan would schedule the delivery of the message. On
the other hand, the president could offer to deliver the
message and review national issues and do so with the
consent of the Legislative Yuan. The Constitution does
not make the president responsible to the legislature;
and therefore he would not be subject to interpellation
on the floor, albeit he could give answers in writing.
It is now mandatory for the president to deliver a
State of the Nation before the Legislative Yuan without
the complicated procedures.
3. Initiation of Resolutions and Bills
Democratic Progressive Party Member of the
Legislative Yuan Kuan Bi-ling slapped her Kuomintang
counterpart Hung Hsiu-chu at an Education Committee
meeting on October 22, 2008. The incident occurred
because Kuan and her two opposition party colleagues
resented their being bullied at the committee meeting
where Hung presided. They wanted to initiate a resolution,
but were unable to do so for they lacked mandatory
endorsements. According to the Bylaw on Legislative
Procedure prior to an amendment, a motion or a
proposal for amendment has to be initiated by one
committee member and endorsed by three others present
and voting. The opposition party is represented by
27 members in the parliament, and cannot seat more
than three members on the Education Committee. Kuan
and her colleagues resented the overwhelming dominance
of the Kuomintang, which handily and lawfully
nipped their initiation in the bud.
Currently, the opposition party seats three members
on the Education Committee and each of four other
standing committees. The four are the Foreign Affairs,
Finance, Communications, Judiciary, and Health and
Environment Committees. There would be no chance
for the party to initiate a motion at meetings of the five
committees without the support of a member of the
Non-Partisan Solidarity Union or the independent, unless
the bylaw was amended.
Article 57 of the bylaw was deleted on December
26, 2008 to make it possible for the opposition to initiate
a motion without three endorsements. However, the
deletion is not necessary, because the lack of enough
endorsements for a motion was and still is a problem
that can be solved by the party caucus even if the article
remained intact. The deletion is likely to trigger proliferation
of motions and bills that may harass standing
committees.
III. Reform in Progress
1. Transparency in Legislation
The Legislative Yuan is planning to have all its
meetings televised live to ensure transparency in legislation.
A mission was sent to the United States to learn
the experiences of the Cable Satellite Public Affairs
Network in covering the Congress in July 2008. At the
recommendation of the mission, Wang Jin-pyng, president
of the Legislative Yuan, declared the decision to
open the whole legislative process to electronic media
coverage. According to the timetable he announced,
online coverage would start in mid-September, when
the Legislative Yuan started its second session of 2008
and a new Parliament Channel would open live coverage
in January 2009. No coverage started, however.
2. Power of Investigation
According to Interpretation 585 of the Council of