By Michael Danielsen, chairman of Taiwan Corner
Taiwan’s opposition, led by the Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), is initiating political actions that will influence Taiwan’s political development.
The street protests in the week leading up to Friday, December 20, focused on the opposition’s legislation, which makes it more difficult for the population to recall politicians. Additionally, the ruling party DPP was unable to participate in a meeting about the legislation because the meeting room was blocked. The latter is democratically concerning. One of the motivations behind the legislative change could be that KMT is worried about grassroots initiatives aimed at recalling some of its politicians. In certain electoral districts, the election results were very close.
Looking ahead, it appears that the opposition aims to require a two-thirds majority of the 15 judges in the Constitutional Court to be present for making decisions and 9 judges need to be in favor of a decision. Combined with the fact that the court currently has only 8 judges and the opposition can delay or refuse to approve new judges, there is a risk that the Constitutional Court will effectively become non-functional.
The opposition party KMT is also working to secure larger budgets for local governments at the expense of budgets for other parts of society. For example, there is a proposal to keep 100% of tax revenues locally, whereas currently, 20% is transferred to the central government. This is fundamentally a political debate about the balance between central and local governance. Naturally, it is significant that the opposition party KMT has greater influence locally and therefore has an interest in larger local budgets, while the ruling party DPP has the opposite interest. The TPP could potentially act as a compromise-seeking party in this scenario, and its role is critical for securing a majority.
Taiwan’s political system does not guarantee that the government and the president have a majority in the parliament. The people elected William Lai from the DPP as president, signaling support for Taiwan’s independence. However, after two parliamentary terms with a DPP majority, legitimate dissatisfaction arose, and the last election gave control of the parliament to the Nationalist Party (KMT) and the TPP. While the TPP, which positions itself between the DPP and KMT on relations with China, theoretically holds a middle ground, it has practically cooperated with KMT.
Ultimately, power lies in the parliament, as desired by the people. This development could significantly impact the budget for various parts of society. As a result, the president will need to draw heavily on his 11 years of experience as an elected member of Taiwan’s parliament.
