"New Blood" in the Control Yuan Has Become New Chaos of Constitutional Gov’t

  "New Blood" in the Control Yuan Has Become New Chaos of Constitutional Gov’t

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

July 20, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

The Legislative Yuan last January confirmed the nominations of 11 new members of the Control Yuan put forward by President Tsai Ing-wen; the ecology and culture of the Control Yuan have undergone a sudden change as a result, virtually forming another new battleground for political wrangling in Taiwan. Many times, as long as cases involved positions of political parties, some members of the Control Yuan would drive a wedge in the cleavage, even pulling strings and forming factions. Since the constitutional reform, the Control Yuan has been changed from a "deliberative organ indirectly elected by the people" to a "quasi-judicial organ"; however, because of the recent changes in ecology, the constitutional positioning of the control power has met with unprecedented challenges.

The current chaotic situation of the Control Yuan saw the planting of the seeds of calamity as early as when President Tsai Ing-wen made the nominations last year. The eleven people nominated by Tsai Ing-wen nearly all have close relationships with political and party stances in their backgrounds; this was quite different from the past thinking that Control Yuan members came from "fair personages of society."

According to the Constitutional provisions, Control Yuan members transcend political parties and exercise their functions and power independently in accordance with the law; however, the new Control Yuan members form factions by only looking at political stances, disregarding right and wrong, which is indeed unprecedented. Tsai Ing-wen will, of course, go down in history for this account.

The most important task of the Control Yuan is to safeguard the people’s rights and interests, and oversee the government; however, the new Control Yuan members nominated by Tsai Ing-wen, on the other hand, think only of safeguarding the DPP government, while all the way overseeing the former government. One day in the future, when all Control Yuan members are nominated and confirmed by the DPP, then the Control Yuan would be morphed from what had been ridiculed as a "mosquito Yuan" into a "hatchet men’s Yuan."

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