The pro-government coalition released today the first "Asian Congressional Openness Indicators". The transparency ranking of our Legislative Yuan ranked second among nine countries, second only to South Korea. However, the "Institutional Accountability" indicator of the Legislative Yuan lags significantly behind Japan and South Korea, and is only better than Malaysia. Zhang Honglin, CEO of the Public Oversight Alliance, said bluntly that this evaluation not only proves that Taiwan has democracy for all to see, but also that it is a sovereign and independent country. Therefore, Legislative Yuan Han Kuo-yu should fulfill his responsibilities, implement parliamentary reforms, and lead the Legislative Yuan to become a leader in Asia during the remaining term of his term.
The Citizens Alliance for Oversight of Congress held a press conference today (5th) to announce the results of the first "Asian Congressional Openness Index" (APOI) evaluation. This indicator survey covers the parliaments of nine countries, including Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Mongolia, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Through an evaluation mechanism covering 32 indicators and 54 questions, it reports the degree of parliamentary openness from the three aspects of "information openness", "system accountability" and "citizen participation". Our country ranks second overall this time, but in terms of "system accountability" it is only better than Malaysia and far behind Japan and South Korea.
In response to the fact that our country ranks second in the survey, but "system accountability" is far behind Japan and South Korea, Zhang Honglin, CEO of the Public Oversight Alliance, said that Taiwan's performance in transparency and openness in Congress is indeed good, and many foreign groups have come to Taiwan to exchange and learn from experience; however, Legislative Yuan accountability The system only scored 33 points, which shows that the legislator's avoidance of interests is not reliable enough. Even the "big accountant" of the legislator Gao Jin Sumei, Zhang Junjie, was involved in fraudulently claiming assistant fees and violating the national security law. "This is a very embarrassing thing for Taiwan."
He bluntly said that the Legislative Yuan today ranks among the best among the nine Asian parliaments, thanks to the efforts of former President Wang Jinping, former President Su Jiaquan and former President You Xikun, which were the results achieved during their tenure; in comparison, the "parliamentary reform commitment" they proposed to the current Legislative Yuan In the Letter of Commitment, they have already mentioned the items that should be reformed. As the current legislative term enters the last year, they just do not do it. They denounced the 11th legislator as "a very bad term." Not only did they destroy the constitution and disrupt the government, they also made no progress in personal transparency and integrity.
Finally, Zhang Honglin called on the parties in the government and the opposition, although their different positions lead to offensive and defensive discussions, they should recognize that this is an international trend and the consensus of countries around the world when it comes to democratic values and parliamentary transparency. He emphasized that Congress is a demonstration of national sovereignty, and this evaluation also clearly proves Taiwan's independence as a sovereign country. He also called on Legislative President Han Kuo-yu to lead the Legislative Yuan to "keep up the good work" and make Taiwan the first in Asia's parliamentary transparency during his term. Otherwise, he will change to a president "who is willing to do this" next time.
