The Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China voted today (21st) to reject the proposal from the Executive Yuan to amend the parliament’s powers. Blue and White Party lawmakers, with a numerical advantage, successfully voted against the revision proposal. Supporters of the “Blue Eagle Action” and “Blue Hawk Action” expressed their demands outside the venue. In the afternoon, heavy rain poured down, leading the “Blue Hawk” supporters to disperse at noon, while the “Blue Bird” supporters, opposing the expansion of parliament’s power, continued to stand firm outside the Legislative Yuan.
The Executive Yuan of the Republic of China believes that the amendment to the parliament’s powers is impractical. After submitting the revision proposal on the 6th, it was approved by President Lai Ching-te on the 11th and then submitted to the Legislative Yuan for reconsideration. The Legislative Yuan convened full committee meetings on the 19th and 20th, inviting Premier Su Tseng-chang to explain the revision proposal, with representatives from various party factions asking questions. In today’s session, the parliament processed the reconsideration of the parliament’s powers, voting by name, and with the cooperation between the Blue and White (People’s Party) factions, the two reconsideration proposals (Parliamentary Powers Act, Criminal Law) were rejected.
In order to oppose “parliamentary abuse of power,” more than 50 civil society groups have been monitoring the vicinity of the Legislative Yuan for three consecutive days since June 19, advocating against “parliamentary abuse of power” and rejecting the regression of democracy. As the voting results were announced this afternoon, heavy rain began to fall. Despite the weather, supporters of the “Blue Bird Action” continued to stay on site, with some people holding umbrellas and others wearing raincoats to participate in the activities.
To counter the “Blue Bird Action,” the Kuomintang mobilized supporters to form the “Blue Eagle Action.” The KMT legislative caucus previously applied for rights to Lin Sen South Road, Qingdao East Road, and organized the “Blue Eagle Action,” rallying supporters to take to the streets in support of the KMT’s demands for the truth, anti-corruption, and parliamentary reform. Supporters voluntarily took the stage to speak out, and several tour buses were parked near the Legislative Yuan on the outskirts.
The meeting of the “Blue Eagle Action” started at 8:30 am. After the 9:00 am Legislative Yuan session, including Legislative Yuan caucus convener Fu Kun-chi, Wu Tsung-hsien, Hsieh Lung-jieh, Li Yan-xiu, Wang Hung-wei, Hsu Chiao-hsin, Hsu Hsin-ying, and Chen Yu-chen, as well as Taipei City, New Taipei City, Taoyuan City councilors, and KMT Chairman Eric Chu, took turns to speak on stage.
Over 50 civic groups in Taiwan held multiple press conferences. The organizers announced at 9:12 pm that the number of participants on-site had exceeded 30,000. Lai Chung-chiang, a lawyer and member of the Citizens’ Alliance, stated that today marked the third day of the gathering, “Citizens against Parliamentary Abuse, Returning to the Legislative Yuan.” Despite the alternating sunshine and heavy rain, the Legislative Yuan continued to attract thirty thousand citizens concerned about Taiwan’s future, expressing their support for and defense of democracy. They declared their stance of “Defend democracy, citizens will not retreat” and announced three major actions to continue defending Taiwan’s democratic values.
Lai Chung-chiang emphasized that the over a month-long anti-abuse of power movement was a successful civic movement. He pointed out that some people claim they were mobilized by the Democratic Progressive Party, but the DPP could not mobilize them or hinder them. A truly successful civic movement leads societal change.
The Deputy Secretary-General of the Taiwan Citizens’ Alliance, Hsu Kuan-tse, emphasized that while the Legislative Yuan rejected the Executive Yuan’s reconsideration proposal today, this is not the end of the action but a new beginning. In addition to the parliamentary abuse of power law that will be reviewed by the Grand Justices in the future, they also have seven other anti-democracy regression laws, including the Abuse of Power Parliamentary Special Investigation Team, confiscation of people’s recall rights, democratic defense for rule of law regression, CTV red media reincorporation, nuclear power plant extension, Hualien-Taichung three regulations, and the return of improper party assets of the Salvation Party, which require continuous obstruction to defend democracy.
Civil society groups will continue through three major actions. The Taiwan Citizens’ Alliance will recruit volunteers in 22 counties and cities to continue defending democratic values. They will hold a summer school on campuses to deepen students’ understanding of democracy amidst China’s covert influence and infiltrate, and they will promote the “National Eight-District, Blue Monitoring Committee” operation to advance to regions such as New Taipei, Keelung, Taipei, Taoyuan, Hsinchu-Miaoli, Taichung, Yunchang-Tou (Zhuoshui District), indigenous areas, and Hualien and Kinmen for in-depth propaganda.
Hsu Kuan-tse emphasized that civil society groups will continue to monitor the Legislative Yuan. In the future, civil society groups will be divided into six groups to continue monitoring the actions of the Legislative Yuan to prevent further regression of Taiwanese democracy. He also called on “all citizens to continue to pay attention and support, as this is a prolonged battle. We will steadfastly defend Taiwan’s democratic values, and for Taiwan’s future, please join our ranks and let the deputies who disregard the will of the people be sanctioned.”