Withdraw the disputed parliamentary reform bills! Defend our civic space in Taiwan

The Asia Citizen Future Association (ACFA) connects Taiwan and Southeast Asian civil society through research, training, building networks, and public education. ACFA is committed to alleviating the trend of shrinking civic space in Southeast Asia together with civil society among the region.

We have been attentive to Thailand's Article 112 of the Criminal Law, which brought extensive harm to the youth over the course of the past few years. We have discussed how Malaysia's Societies Act and Universities and University Colleges Act grant excessive administrative power to the authorities and school faculties. We also brought attention to Indonesia's new Criminal Code, which explicitly prohibits defamation against the President and the state. The above laws have increased the costs and negative impact to Southeast Asian civil society's actions and work.

Regrettably, on the tenth anniversary of Taiwan's 318 Sunflower Movement, we witnessed a series of disputed bills with vague provisions being passed without sufficient discussion, including the 'Parliament Reform Bill', which violates freedom of speech and hurts the separation of powers. The bills have been arbitrarily passed in the parliament with no procedural justice and democratic procedures.

Due to the addition of many vague and punitive provisions and terminology in the bill, including the “not complying with interpellation“, "false statements", and "contempt of the parliament", we believe that once it is passed, the bill will causes punishments and negative impacts to the civil society and organizations for their advocacy and expression in the future.

We see this as a bill of power abusing, a regression of democracy, and a sign of shrinking civic space of Taiwan.