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By
Chris Wang / Staff reporter Tue,
Oct 15, 2013 - Page 3 Hundreds
of academics yesterday called on Premier Jiang Yi-huah
(江宜樺)
to step down for his poor performance as head of the Cabinet and for
violating the Constitution. The
academics issued a joint appeal titled “The shamelessness of intellectuals is
a national disgrace,” in which they listed the “four mistakes” they said
Jiang has committed. They
refused to refer to him as him as the premier in the appeal, calling him “Mr Jiang Yi-huah” because he is
“no longer qualified for the title,” they told a press conference in Taipei. Jiang
had neither tried to stop the illegal wiretaps in a “political plot” against
President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) rivals —
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and Democratic Progressive
Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) —
nor advised Ma against waging an internal battle within the Chinese
Nationalist Party (KMT), the academics said. They
also accused him of speaking in contempt of the legislature — a serious
breach of the constitutional spirit of the separation of powers, the
statement said, adding that the premier has refused to apologize to the
legislature over the comment, leading to the current stalemate between the
executive and legislative branches of government. “While
the no-confidence motion is unlikely to pass, it is important to hold
responsible individuals accountable for the political strife in September
because responsible politics is what democracy is all about,” Nanhua University assistant professor Steve Wang (王思為) told the press conference. Aside
from the news conference organized by Taiwan Forever Association (台灣永社), in
which they issued the appeal, the academics also held a separate press
conference simultaneously yesterday morning. Jiang’s claim that a failed no-confidence motion would
represent public confidence in the Cabinet was “shameless,” Chung Hua
University associate professor Tseng Chien-yuan (曾建元) said at the second event. Tseng
also rebutted a common criticism of the DPP’s proposal, saying that a
no-confidence motion would be a responsible countermeasure with the least
cost against the executive branch’s unilateral and authoritative policy as
well as a good solution to break a political gridlock. The motion has two implications for the Ma administration, National
Dong Hwa University professor Shih Cheng-feng (施正鋒) said. “First, it sends a warning to Ma and tells him that he is not an emperor
and he cannot do whatever he wants. Second, it is a warning to Jiang that he
cannot expect to climb up the political ladder with the way he governs now,”
Shih said. * 《Taipei Times》2013/10/15。 |
