Taiwan dances on tightrope

Taiwan’s “new constitution” will be focused on improving democratic governance and protecting civil liberties, and won’t touch the sensitive issues in cross-strait relations, a Taiwan government minister said in Washington last week.

“After so many years of transition, it’s time that Taiwan move forward and come up with a new constitution. That ‘new’ doesn’t mean a separate government. The ‘new’ means new timing, new process and new scope,” Minister Yeh Jiunn-rong, chairman of the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission under Taiwan’s executive branch, said during a discussion at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Mr. Yeh said the new constitution will reflect Taiwan’s emergence from a one-party state to a full-fledged democracy; involve a broader and less elitist discussion among multiple political parties and social groups; and entail a more holistic reform, rather than a single-issue approach.

This new round of constitutional reform “has little to do with the one-China policy,” Mr. Yeh said. “As President Chen [Shui-bian] said [in his inaugural address May 20], the national sovereignty, territory and independence versus reunification are not going to be included in this round of constitutional reform. Those issues have to be addressed in another forum.”

Taiwanese leaders say the Republic of China’s 1947 constitution is an anachronism. Written in Nanjing, China, more than a half-century ago, the constitution was drafted for a large, underdeveloped country, not for an industrialized society of 23 million. It should be replaced with a new constitution, not merely a revised constitution, to better reflect the island’s democracy and commitment to human rights, they say.

Mr. Chen and other Taiwanese politicians want a constitution they can call their own — a constitution by and for the people of Taiwan. But Mr. Chen has stopped short of espousing constitutional items that indicate declarations of Taiwan’s independence from China.

This means that Taiwan won’t change its official name, the Republic of China — ROC for short — to what former President Lee Teng-hui, an advocate of Taiwan’s independence, suggested early this month at the first convening of the “Action for a Taiwanese Constitution” movement: “Taiwan” or its variations, “Taiwan Republic of China” or “ROC on Taiwan.”

Even the ROC’s territorial boundaries, as stated in the constitution, are unlikely to be altered. The ROC today exercises control over Taiwan and several offshore islands, including Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu, but the 1947 constitution holds a one-China view in which the ROC controls mainland China, Taiwan and Mongolia.

Among the topics to be addressed, which have been debated frequently by scholars and politicians, are whether Taiwan should change its five-branch political system to a three-branch government, elect the president by a plurality or majority vote, shrink the legislature, and abolish the National Assembly and provincial governments.

In his second inaugural address on May 20, Mr. Chen, under intense pressure from Washington, scrapped his campaign pledge to call a referendum to approve a new constitution and has maintained this position ever since, rankling his pro-independence supporters. Mr. Chen also stated his commitment to “a new version of our constitution,” as the top priority for his second term. He said it should be drawn up by 2006 and implemented by 2008, the end of his eight-year presidency.

Creating the new document will follow the guidelines provided in the current constitution, Mr. Chen said at his inauguration. The Legislative Yuan, the national legislature, will draft the new constitution, which must pass with a three-fourths majority.

The now-suspended National Assembly, an electoral college that used to elect the president but is still responsible for making constitutional amendments, will reconvene and its members will be elected based on proportional representation of political parties. National Assembly representatives must ratify the new constitution with a three-fourths majority.

Despite six previous rounds of constitutional revision — the most significant of which allowed for direct election of the president and national legislators — Mr. Chen, Taiwanese politicians and analysts often have criticized the constitution and its piecemeal amendments for creating a cumbersome and inefficient government and opportunities for official corruption.

Clearing confusion

The current constitution is not clear on whether the central government should be a presidential or parliamentary system. In recent years, fear has been expressed that the presidency is too powerful compared with the legislature, having been considerably strengthened from a partially presidential system under Lee Teng-hui to an essentially presidential system under Mr. Chen.

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