Introducing Citizen Congress Watch

Citizen Congress Watch (CCW) was established in 2007, set up by almost 50 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Taiwan. CCW continues to promote transparency in the Legislative Yuan (LY) and initiate various congressional reforms. This includes work to deepen democracy by publishing professional and comprehensive evaluation reports on legislators every six months, organizing and offering training for congress-monitoring volunteers and LY contact persons from other NGOs, developing the Congress in Taiwan board game, and organizing courses and lectures on understanding congress.

CCW helps establish and connect regional parliamentary oversight groups. It has also formed and maintained the operations of the National Parliamentary Oversight Alliance. CCW holds international parliamentary evaluation workshops and strengthens relationships with other international organizations by cooperating and exchanging experiences to promote a civilized, positive, transparent, and efficient congress that works for the public interest. 

CCW has consistently overseen and evaluated legislators through four terms of the LY for 15 years. As of today, the LY has demonstrated significant and comprehensive improvement. Advancements include an increase in the rate of each legislators’ attendance and oral interpellation, complete live broadcasting of parliamentary proceedings, open consultations between political parties, a congress television channel, and requiring legislators to declare benefits that involve conflicts of interest.

To promote reform of the LY and deepen Taiwan’s democracy, CCW not only monitors the performance of legislators, but is also dedicated to improving every aspect of democratic governance. These include increasing LY accountably to voters, voters’ involvement in parliamentary procedures, and information accessibility in relation to the congress and its operation.

(01/25/2022 Press conference on “Declare speaker of county and city councilors’ property online! Boycott money faction politics!”)

(03/24/2022 Visit to the President of Legislative Yuan, You Si-kuan to exchange opinions on the topic of Congress reform.)

CCW took a more active role in participating in international affairs by successively organizing the International Symposium on Congressional Reform and Oversight and the Asian Pacific Congress International Oversight Forum. CCW also invited national and international political scholars to conduct seminars, allowing Taiwan to raise global awareness of its strong democratic foundation and the power of people.

Furthermore, CCW joined the most important election observing organization in Asia – the Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL) and is its only member from Taiwan. CCW has repeatedly supported election observation missions in Asian countries and assisted ANFEREL in conducting election observations in Taiwan. 

(ANFEREL visits Taiwan to conduct research during the presidential election in 2020)

(Asian and Pacific Area International Conference on Supervision over the Congress in 2017)

The Democratic Trend in Asia

While Taiwan is consolidating its democracy, CCW also follows recent events regarding democracy in Asia Pacific region. In 2016, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared the “war on drugs”, which caused a human rights crisis. In 2017, Cambodia’s Supreme Court dissolved the country’s main opposition party. In 2019, the Hong Kong anti-extradition protests showed that “one country, two system” exists only in name. In 2021, the Myanmar coup d’état saw democratic power stripped away by military force. The same year in Afghanistan, the takeover by the Taliban toppled the former regime. CCW has also followed the Sri Lankan protests in 2022.

Larry Diamond, an American political sociologist, stated that it is “a hard time for democracy in Asia.” Advancement of democracy in Asia requires integration of strategies and key human rights issues, as well as strengthening and defense of civil society actors.

CCW International Department

With the outbreak of COVID-19, the integration of medical resources and digital citizenship in Taiwan demonstrated the soft power of democracy and its contribution to the world. Taiwan has built its visibility and recognition globally by using the slogan “Taiwan can help.” Taiwan not only contributes its medical resources to the world, but also shares its process of democratization, active social movements, and valuable experiences in democracy. So when it comes to democracy, Taiwan can also help!

In September 2021, CCW established its International Department. Formed by experts and scholars, the department is responsible for communication, making international connections, representing Taiwan in international NGO conferences, and bringing CCW’s unique experience in democracy to the Asia-Pacific and the rest of the world.

Participating in International Conference

Since the establishment of CCW’s International Department in 2021, it has initiated exchanges with international organizations. CCW has been invited to share at many international conferences on the topic of democracy, parliamentary oversight, elections, transparency, human rights, and women’s political participation. Bringing Taiwan’s unique experience to Asia and the rest of the world as well as working with other legislative monitoring organizations to build stronger relationship.

(April 2022, Participated in the Global Election Justice Conference in Bali, Indonesia)

Goals of CCW International Department

Short term: Increase awareness of Taiwan’s valuable experiences in democratization worldwide by participating international conferences.
Mid-term: Connect with Asia-Pacific’s civic society to strengthen CCW’s regional partners’ relationship.
Long-term: Develop democracy oversight alliances in Asian-Pacific region to increase the democratic governance’s capacity in all aspects and consolidate its democracy.

Conclusion

CCW can confirm that the mid and long-term objectives were set in the right direction by receiving positive feedback on its current goal. The consolidation of democracy depends on whether the civic society could continue to monitor closely on every democratic governance by participating in the law-making process and encouraging criticism among citizens, which confirms what Larry Diamond has said about Asia’s future in democracy. Regardless of who’s in charge, to maintain a country’s democracy requires a strong civic society to monitor legislators and parliamentarians’ performance.

Therefore, CCW asked for your support, as with Taiwan’s experiences in democracy, we could support countries in the Asia Pacific by sharing our successful experiences in democratization through the intranet and strengthen civil society by establishing a well-functioning system. At the same time, CCW wished to improve the international regulations and standards in terms of monitoring and overseeing congresses in order to establish cohesion on how to regulate the congress in a democratic way and ultimately connect partners in the Asia Pacific region to improve its democratic governance and consolidate its development process.

原文:https://ccw.org.tw/news/20220621_ccw_int