Amending Laws in Slumber Reflects the DPP Caucus's Absent-Mindedness

  Amending Laws in Slumber Reflects the DPP Caucus's Absent-Mindedness

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

January 11, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

After an 18-hour marathon review and voting, the amendment bill to the Labor Standards Act, as amended, was passed in the third reading on January 10. In fact, when the legislative action proceeded to midnight, many legislators had fallen asleep, slumbering in their chairs. But in order to lend support to the Cabinet, the DPP insisted on continuing to burn the midnight oil; for this reason, it was ridiculed by the opposition parties as "amending laws in a slumber." This label, used to describe DPP legislators’ amending the Labor Standards Act twice in 13 months without paying attention, is rather apt and fitting.

The amendment this time was for correcting the ills of the government’s "inflated revision" last time; the “achievements" touted last time finally came to an end. In other words, the whole nation squandered 13 months of time, bringing set-backs to industries, fury to laborers, and unease to the people; in reality, it was nothing but the Tsai government’s efforts to clean up its endgame. Under such circumstances, if the DPP caucus could still celebrate the victory of the completion of legislative action, wouldn’t that show a complete lack of common sense?

The Labor Standards Act was amended twice in 13 months. The first time, the amendment bill was railroaded amid a fierce battle, leaving a heap of sequela; this time the third reading was done in a slumber, showing that DPP legislators still did not understand their dereliction of duty. Thus, we could see that the structure of the Tsai government is something that merits our concerns: the executive team is an old train led by a new locomotive; the legislative team does not know how to carry out its power and obligations; the national security team can only act by looking at the countenance of the United States. All of these deficiencies lead to lopsided divergences and disabilities in governance of the state.

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