Director Yu of the Constitutional Reform Work Group at the Office of the President, Minister Yeh of the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission, Constitutional Scholars from Taiwan and abroad, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentleman: Good Morning!
I am delighted and honored to be among you today at the "International Conference on Constitutional Reengineering in New Democracies." First, on behalf of the government and people of Taiwan, I would like to welcome all the international scholars who have come from afar to join us in exploring issues on constitutional reengineering, and to share with us constitutional reform experience from around the globe while also bearing witness to Taiwan's constitutional reengineering progress.
Constitutional reengineering has, over the past decades, been brought to the forefront of governments' agendas in countries all over the world. From 1990 till now, more than thirty countries around the world have either promulgated new constitutions or launched constitutional reforms. Among them are democratic countries with mature and stable political developments such as France, Germany, and Switzerland, as well as nascent democracies that we are familiar with, for example, South Africa, East Europe and countries of the former Soviet Union; also, emerging democratic countries like Mongolia and Thailand. The commonality among these countries lies in the central role constitutional reengineering plays in strengthening a nation's global governance and in equipping the country with fast response capabilities to meet the challenges brought about by political, economic and social transformations.
Meanwhile, many countries have begun to place greater emphasis on public participation in the constitutional reengineering process, thereby expanding the depth and breath of civic participation to reflect the rising demands of contemporary politics—that is, a focus on grass-root democracy and direct political participation by the people. In particular, I would like to call your attention to the South African constitutional reengineering experience, which has been hailed by most constitutional scholars as a success story. Before South Africa enacted its new constitution, an interim constitution was ratified, stipulating a two-year period of public discussion, during which the general public was involved in a full-scale constitutional education program launched through various channels such as newspaper, public broadcast, television and the internet. This not only effectively consolidated consensus among the people, it also significantly reinforced South Africans' "common identity" and their shared "sense of belonging." Another example is our allied country, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, which we had just visited at the end of last month on a tour that afforded us the opportunity to witness their progress in constitutional reform.
Over the last few years, St. Vincent has made great strides in constitutional reforms. St. Vincent's House of Assembly launched the "Constitution Research and Review Committee" in 2003 and vigorously encouraged Vincentians to express their views on the new constitution. The ultimate goal is to draft a timely, suitable and viable constitution for St. Vincent through constitutional consultation and with the full participation of the people. In February of this year, St. Vincent's "Constitutional Research and Review Committee" already delivered its final Report to the St. Vincent House of Assembly. This report is the compilation of the results of constitutional consultations and serves as an important reference for St. Vincent's future constitutional reforms.
Looking into the world from Taiwan's perspectives, countries like South Africa and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, or any country undertaking constitutional reform, have all written new chapters in history during the latest wave of constitutional reform that has swept through the world. We aspire to learn from these countries and their sterling accomplishments to further invigorate our own conviction in democratic values—for we believe the spirits of democracy will eventually triumph resoundingly in every corner of the world.
Over the past five years, in spite of efforts by our government to push for various reforms and in deepening Taiwan's democracy, the political reality confronting our "minority government" made the attainment of these reform objectives much more challenging. This is a glaring example of how a fragmented and incomplete constitution not only pose the greatest resistance and impediment to reforms; but is indeed the source of constitutional turmoil such as political filibuster and standoffs between the governing and opposition parties, which have rendered the government idle in inefficiency.
Two rounds of constitutional amendments in 1994 and 1998 established that the president shall be elected by direct popular vote and the premier be appointed by the president, requiring no consent of the Legislative Yuan. Thereafter, the entire constitutional system clearly leans towards a presidential system, but the president is not endowed with the power to veto bills passed by the Legislative Yuan. Furthermore, current constitutional laws stipulate that only when the legislature overthrows the cabinet can the president exercise passively the power to dissolve the legislature. This differentiates Taiwan’s constitutional system with that of a cabinet system or the dual-executive system. Therefore, not only the design of the current constitution is laden with contradictions and incompatibilities, its actual implementation is also morbidly inefficient. Any time we have a president and the legislative majority belonging to different political parties hostile to each other, the government faces immediate risk of a total shutdown. In other words, Taiwan's current constitution, which does not afford the legal mechanism to effectively deal with political stalemate—is necessarily linked to the lack of productivity and infighting in the government over the past five years.
Apart from the abovementioned constitutional issues within the central government, there are other inherent flaws in this constitution. For example, the articles on the protection of basic human rights are mostly outdated and need revamping; the division of power and duties between the central and local governments needs to be further implemented, so does the downsizing of governmental levels within; greater efforts need to be devoted to care for and protect the rights of the indigenous peoples and disadvantaged groups; comprehensive review should also be conducted on military conscription system and the voting-age limit. All in all, conservative estimation puts the number of Constitutional statues that need to be amended at 175, or two-thirds of the whole constitution. For this reason, we must jettison the single-issue approach of the past constitutional amendments, which only addresses the most pressing issues each time without considering the whole picture. We should, instead, apply holistic perspectives to comprehensively review the existential flaws in our constitutional system.
The completion of the first-phase of constitutional reengineering project made possible the incorporation of the right to referendum in the constitution to approve final versions of future amendments. The era of constitutional reforms dictated by one-person or one-party has ended. In the future, people of Taiwan will be the final decision-makers; and any constitutional reengineering project without the support of and approval by the majority people is bound to fail. Therefore, we must strengthen constitutional education—through civic assemblies, forums on selected topics and media reporting—to engage our people to gain a deeper and more accurate understanding of the contemporary concepts of constitutional democracy and to encourage them to proactively participate in relevant discussions.
To demonstrate our resolve in forging ahead with the second-phase of the constitutional reengineering project, the Office of the President has established a "Constitutional Reform Office" on August 1st of this year, to broadly solicit people’s opinions on constitutional reforms. We hope to provide a platform for civic discourse and democratic participation, thereby enabling Taiwan's society, especially the non-governmental sector, to seriously contemplate on our shared future with foresight and discipline. Furthermore, we have mapped out concrete implementation plans with the goal of organizing constitutional forums in each neighborhood and disseminating information to every household. To this end, we will actively recruit teachers to promote constitutional civic education and to host 10,000 constitutional forums by the end of 2008. Concurrently, we will actively utilize educational materials, television, broadcast and the Internet to provide gateways for our people to recognize and understand that this constitutional reengineering project is inextricably linked to their personal rights.
I have always believed that the Constitution serves not the political elites or the governing party or the opposition parties; instead it belongs to the entire citizenry of this country. The constitutional reengineering project, therefore, not only is a crucial step in deepening Taiwan's democracy; it presents us the best opportunity to implement civic education. In the future, the government will strive to assist civic groups and the general populace to initiate broad-based discussions on constitutional reform issues pertinent to people's lives. All future constitutional reengineering projects will incorporate, to the greatest extent, opinions of the people from all social backgrounds by adopting a "bottom-up and outside-in" civic participatory model—that is, various constitutional amendment proposals will be first put forward by civic groups before political parties are engaged. After consolidating pluralistic opinions in the society, the people of Taiwan will together write a new constitution that will aptly reflect the collective will of the people.
Ladies and Gentlemen, constitutional reform experience around the globe reveal to us that a president who has been reelected and has no plan to run for reelection is best suited to lead a constitutional reengineering project. At present, I am under no pressure to run for reelection, therefore, regardless of who would be president in 2008, I believe now is the best time to make headways in our constitutional reengineering project. I would like to hereby proclaim that no matter which direction our constitutional democracy is heading, I have no pre-established position and I will fully support the majority will of the people. In the next two years, with utmost fortitude and determination, I will endeavor to promote constitutional reform education, and listen most humbly to the voice of our people; and in this process, fulfill my role as a mediator, a prime mover, and a cultivator in these constitutional processes. It is my earnest hope that the consolidation of the will of the people and their collective wisdom will provide an impetus to these undertakings, and that before I finish my second-term as the president, we will be able to together greet the birth of Taiwan's new constitution—one that is timely, suitable and viable.
I am convinced that, in the next two days, all the constitutional scholars from Taiwan and abroad at this Conference will make valuable contributions to the discussion of constitution-making, especially in what pertains to Taiwan's current phase of constitutional reengineering project. I also wish to take this opportunity to help the international community understand that a new Taiwan Constitution embodies the basic right our people have in seeking continued existence and in pursuing sustained development. This right cannot be deprived, limited, or obstructed by any country, any government or any individual. It is therefore my earnest hope that the international community generously gives Taiwan people support and assistance to help us embark on this journey to constitutional reengineering, with each step taken ever so steadily and ever so confidently.
Distinguished guests and dear friends: let me conclude by expressing my appreciation for your participation and I wish all of you good health and continued success. Thank you.