Do Green Legislators Dare to Block Chen Shi-meng's Nomination as Member of Control Yuan?

  Do Green Legislators Dare to Block Chen Shi-meng's Nomination as Member of Control Yuan?

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan, ROC)

March 8, 2017

 Translation of an Except

Despite the meticulous employment of Vice President Chen Chien-jen’s smile offensive, the list of President Tsai Ying-wen’s nominees for Control Yuan members once released still could not excite the society for its approval. Let’s examine the reasons. The DPP has repeatedly vowed to "eliminate the Control Yuan” while at the same time nominated the remaining eleven members of the Control Yuan—a contradiction between words and deeds. A greater negative reaction came from the nomination of Chen Shi-meng who said "eradicating the remnant evils of the party-state system from the judiciary”, a statement full of hatred and bigotry, and even trying to use the control power as a tool for political vendetta.

Tsai Ying-wen wants to nominate the remaining eleven members of the Control Yuan while at the same time reiterating her advocacy of eliminating the Control Yuan. Furthermore, we hardly see “personages of integrity” winning public support among the nominees; they are mostly pro-Green and friendly to Green figures nominated as political spoils. The “eating while hating” approach reflects the Tsai government’s mindset of “harvesting all the spoils while showing no appreciation”, thus winning no sympathy from the public.

What is more condemnable than "on the one hand shouting elimination while nominating new members on the other” is that nominating the likes of Chen Shi-meng who are full of hatred and illogic for the Control Yuan; this is in fact trampling on the authority and reputation of the Control Yuan and even the entire government. Chen Shi-meng served as the Secretary-General of the DPP, and the Secretary-General to then President Chen Shui-bian, but his tenure in both posts was not long; he left after just over a half year in both. This shows his perception of his role has all along been somewhat detached from actual politics.

With regard to this nomination of Control Yuan members, whether DPP legislators will confirm the list of nominees en bloc as a political party that enjoys "complete governance" for the first time, will the DPP legislative caucus act as a rubber stamp forgetting completely its own independent political judgment based on their free will and the mandate of the electorate?

The public is waiting to see whether the DPP legislative caucus still has idealism to reject Chen Shi-meng’s nomination as a Control Yuan member. If on the one hand endlessly accusing the previous government of totalitarianism while at the same time it cannot restrain itself from the addiction of such totalitarianism and arbitrary taste, this is precisely the damaging and ruining of the DPP itself!

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