The ministry regulated lobbying, and the new law defined it as any activity that used oral or written communication to influence officials of the executive or legislative branches with regard to creating, amending or abolishing policies or rules, MOI Minister Lee Yi-yang said in the press release. Taiwan was the third country in the world to enact a law on lobbying, after Canada and the United States, according to the MOI.
Lobbyists were required to register their activities with the ministry, stating their purposes, the period of their activities and estimated expenses. Under the new rule, they would also have to submit reports about their finances every three months. Failure to register with the ministry would result in rejection from officials.
Officials were required to report on their communications with lobbyists within seven days. The act covered the president, vice president and high-ranking officials in central and local governments, as well as representatives of all levels. Parties that concealed lobbying activities would be fined up to US$75,800, according to the act.
The new law prohibited issues concerning defense, diplomacy, as well as relations with China, when national security was involved, from being lobbied. Under the rule, overseas governments or groups who intend to lobby ROC officials must operate through local lobbyists.
To prevent conflicts of interest from occurring, the MOI explained, officials, within three years after leaving a position, were prohibited from lobbying agencies they had worked for in the previous five years. Representatives, for their part, should not lobby for businesses where they, their relatives or trustees held more than 10 percent of the total shares or were involved in the management.
Though the rule said petitions and appeals made by people to the government in accordance with other related rules could not be lobbied, doubts were raised as to how to distinguish petitions from lobbying. For example, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Jao Yung-ching said when people's petitions involved legislation, they were a kind of lobbying. As a result, the Legislature required the MOI to make a definitive classification within six months, the Chinese-language China Times reported July 21.
In related news, 14 of the country's political parties and five political groups reported their assets to the MOI, which then made them public by posting them on its Web site June 16 "for everyone to monitor," an MOI press release stated the same day.
The opposition Kuomintang remained the richest party in Taiwan, with the net value of its assets totaling US$769.7 million, based on information provided by the MOI. It was followed by the DPP, whose assets amounted to US$7.68 million, and the Taiwan Solidarity Union, which had around US$440,000. In contrast, the People First Party was about US$4 million in debt.
Asset declaration was done according to a set of guidelines promulgated by the MOI in November 2006. The guidelines were a measure to respond to people's calls for transparency in politics before the bill regulating political parties and the amendment bill to the current Civic Organization Act completed legislative reviews, Lee explained.
Not all of the country's 122 political parties and 42 registered political groups reported their assets, as disclosure was not mandatory under the guidelines until legislation of the bills was completed, Lee said in a July 17 Liberty Times report.
Party assets have been a hot political issue in Taiwan since the KMT lost ruling power. The DPP is campaigning for a referendum proposal it initiated in April on divesting the KMT of assets it accumulated during its one-party rule. A DPP-proposed bill regarding the disposition of KMT's "ill-gotten" assets still awaits review in the Legislative Yuan.
Write to June Tsai at june@mail.gio.gov.tw