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Viewing cable 05TAIPEI2490, NATIONAL ASSEMBLY APPROVES CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS:

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
05TAIPEI2490 2005-06-07 10:37 2011-08-23 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED American Institute Taiwan, Taipei
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TAIPEI 002490 
 
SIPDIS 
 
WASHINGTON PASS AIT/W 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL TW
SUBJECT: NATIONAL ASSEMBLY APPROVES CONSTITUTIONAL REFORMS: 
DPP AND KMT SUPPORT HOLDS FIRM 
 
REF: A. 2004 TAIPEI 2662 
 
     B. TAIPEI 2066 
     C. TAIPEI 2337 
 
1.  Summary.  Taiwan's ad hoc National Assembly (NA) 
overwhelmingly approved a constitutional revision package 
June 7 with far-reaching implications for Taiwan's political 
party system.  This completes a process begun in August 2004 
to modify the Legislative Yuan (LY) and change the rules for 
altering the constitution.  The revisions over time will 
likely marginalize small, often one-issue, political parties, 
encouraging the growth of a two-party political system and a 
more stable and moderate public policy arena.  As passage of 
the revision package became increasingly assured over the 
last few days, President Chen began to suggest once again a 
"second stage" of constitutional revisions, though he has 
been careful to define these as government efficiency, labor 
and human rights and not the highly sensitive issues of name 
change and a new constitution that he proposed in the course 
of his presidential election campaign.  End Summary. 
 
2.  The ad hoc NA passed by 84 percent vote a far-reaching 
constitutional revision package on Tuesday, June 7.  The 
ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the main 
opposition Kuomintang party (KMT), which won 83 percent of 
the vote in the May 14 NA election, succeeded in holding 
their "troops" in line, with every single DPP and KMT 
delegate voting in favor of the reform package. 
 
3.  The NA was "ad hoc" because it had only one task:  to 
ratify a constitutional revision package passed by the 
Legislative Yuan (LY) last August (Ref A).  The revisions 
will create a one-legislator-per-district legislative system 
(vice the current complex multiple-legislators-per- district 
system).  It will also halve the number of LY seats from 225 
to 113, extend the LY term to four years, and make future 
legislative elections concurrent with presidential elections. 
 Finally, the reform package permanently abolishes the NA, 
leaving Taiwan with a unicameral legislature.  Any future 
constitutional amendments must now be proposed by 
three-fourths of the LY and approved by island-wide 
referendum, raising the threshold for constitutional 
amendments.  A majority of all eligible voters must ratify 
the proposed amendment in a referendum. 
 
An Angry Minority 
----------------- 
 
4.  The NA opened on May 30 with considerable discord.  A 
group of Democratic Action Alliance delegates publicly 
shredded their NA delegate credentials, and resigned in 
protest over the reform package, particularly the halving of 
LY seats.  All the while, the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) 
delegation of 21 chanted the slogan &oppose voting for the 
package, rewrite the Constitution, rectify the national 
title, save Taiwan.8 
 
5.  In a day-long session on June 6 in which political 
parties stated their positions, TSU and PFP lambasted the 
constitutional revision package, though for very different 
reasons.  TSU delegates charged that considering the 
constitutional amendments as a package without debating the 
individual provisions goes against all democratic principles. 
 They also lamented that the referendum provision will make 
it more difficult to amend the constitution.  PFP delegates, 
on the other hand, warned that the referendum provision will 
pave the way for the ruling DPP to push for constitutional 
changes and for name change.  They castigated DPP and KMT for 
working together to "ruin the constitution."  Having won just 
13 per cent of the popular vote on May 14, however, the two 
parties were in no position to block ratification of the 
package. 
 
To the Mountain:  Imposing Discipline, Leading "Troops" 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
6.  In response to reports that some of their delegates 
planned to jump ship and vote against the package, DPP and 
KMT rushed to fill the breach, imposing strict party 
discipline on their delegates and dispatching party leaders 
to Sun Yatsen Hall on top of Yangming Mountain to "lead the 
troops."  President Chen Shui-bian personally met with the 
127 DPP delegates on May 29 to press for their unanimous 
support for the DPP campaign platform in support of the 
constitutional reforms.  DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang 
announced that he and Presidential Office Secretary General 
Yu Shyi-kun would "accompany" the party delegation throughout 
the sitting to ensure all members toed the party line.  KMT 
Chair Lien Chan announced he would go up the mountain at 1:00 
p.m., an hour before the scheduled vote, to "assume command" 
(duzhen) of KMT "troops."  The party assigned one central 
party official to oversee every seven or eight deputies and 
to quickly replace anyone who absented or defied the party 
line during balloting. 
 
7.  Both parties announced harsh measures to ensure party 
discipline, including the quick replacement of any of their 
delegates who voted against the party's campaign pledge of 
support for the reforms.  Finally, the two parties utilized 
their three-fourths majority to establish a two-round voting 
system and ensure that NA rules required all delegates to 
write their names on their ballots.  When the Central 
Election Commission (CEC) announced that it could approve 
replacement NA delegates in "just 15 minutes" and set up a 
desk just outside the assembly hall to quickly process papers 
for replacement deputies, passage of the revision package 
became a fait accompli. 
 
The Writing on the Wall 
----------------------- 
 
8.  Recognizing the inevitable, some members of the TSU and 
PFP began to speak publicly of the possibility of greater 
cooperation, even merger (hebing), with their respective 
coalition partners, DPP and KMT.  On May 29, the day before 
the NA session began, several TSU and PFP legislators made 
public comments to this effect, eliciting harsh condemnation 
from TSU and PFP hardliners on the evening political talk 
shows. 
 
Constitutional Reform "Second Stage" 
------------------------------------ 
 
9.  In the final days before the vote, as passage of the 
constitutional revision package became assured, President 
Chen began to speak for the first time in nearly six months 
of further -- what he termed a "second stage" -- 
constitutional revisions.  He and other DPP leaders, however, 
have been careful to frame this second stage as consisting of 
improvements in government efficiency, labor and human 
rights.  They have publicly assured that it will not involve 
either of the sensitive issues Chen raised during his 
election -- name change and a new Taiwan constitution.  In 
the long run, the real impediment to such changes is the twin 
threshholds any constitutional amendment must cross -- 
support by three-quarters of the LY and then by half of all 
eligible voters. 
PAAL