Former Executive President Jiang Yihua attended the "Review and Prospect of 30 Years of Direct Presidential Elections" seminar today (12th) and said that after the Legislative Yuan failed to review the bill passed on the third reading, the Constitution clearly stipulates that the Executive President "shall immediately accept the resolution." There is no room for maneuver or any proviso. However, Executive President Zhuo Yongtai refused to countersign the law and prevented it from being promulgated and implemented. "Let me put it bluntly, this is unconstitutional and illegal, and it is also against democratic politics." It is the biggest crisis in Taiwan's current constitutional system.
Jiang Yihua said that if the cabinet minister did not countersign the bill when it was announced by the president, "this matter will determine whether a country is a democratic country." According to statistics, there have been eight bills passed by the Legislative Yuan that were not published because the executive power considered them unacceptable. The practice was to have the executive president not countersign, thereby achieving the purpose of not implementing the bill passed by the National Assembly. "This is a 100% violation of the Constitution and violates the provisions of the Constitution." He does not know of any legal experts or any method that can rationalize "the executive power can actually veto the decision of the legislative power after review."
He pointed out that the power of deputy signatures is stipulated in the presidential chapter of the Constitution. It is a leftover design when the Constitution was originally closer to a cabinet system and was changed to a dual-chief system when the constitution was revised in the 1990s. It was intended to control the president and has never been used since the constitution was enacted. Now, this power written in the presidential chapter is "used by the Executive Yuan as a power to deal with the Legislative Yuan, that is, the Congress." It is "a very, very strange misplacement."
Jiang Yihua said that the Executive Yuan claimed that "I help the president fight against Congress and veto Congress" on the grounds that the bill is unenforceable and unconstitutional. He asked rhetorically that there is no article in the entire constitution that gives the executive head the role of "thinking that he is the guardian of the Constitution, or the Supreme Emperor of Congress." From a theoretical perspective, "it is actually the dictatorship of the executive power."
Jiang Yihua also reminded of a less discussed political consequence: when the Executive Yuan discovers that the deputy signature power can be used against Congress, "in fact, he can also use it against the president." In the future, any president must think twice when appointing cabinet ministers, and only dare to appoint people who fully obey his instructions. Otherwise, he will be held hostage by the executive director. Candidates who have the ability to make independent judgments and can advise the president at critical moments "probably will not appear." He gave an example. When Tsai Ing-wen wanted to appoint Lai Ching-te and Su Tseng-chang, she "may have to think twice." In the future, if President Lai Ching-te appoints someone other than Zhuo Rongtai, whether it is Chen Qimai, Lin Jialong, etc., "he will also have to think twice."
He concluded that in the past, this kind of thing was called a deadlock. "Today, this deadlock has slowly turned into a crisis." After the activation of deputy signature power, it will be even less likely to find cabinet ministers who are independent and have their own will in the future. "We will only see people who are completely obedient to the president one after another." He is worried that this will become "an administrative dictatorship in Taiwan."
Huang Huangxiong, chairman of the Taipei Institute of Political Science and Economics Foundation, responded that Jiang Yihua rarely speaks, but these remarks "may become a shock bomb to the constitutional government" and "should be given to Dean Zhuo and should be thought about carefully." He said, "We are not afraid of problems, but we have to spread them out." The administration should be brave enough to face it, because this "is probably the most descriptive statement on this issue so far." The administrative department should think carefully about how to respond.
