💔 Alienation of Legislative Function: When the Opposition Mistook “Supervision” for “Inherent Duty to Obstruct”
Today, while slightly tipsy, I suddenly wanted to write about this topic.
Yes, I am currently in a state of slight intoxication. If I make typos, use incorrect punctuation, or my logical thinking is convoluted, I ask for your kind understanding.
To begin, I want to break the ice with a recently hot topic: the “death penalty.”
Although I made a small joke about an article by the Death Penalty Abolition Alliance a while ago, I still repeatedly emphasize that whether one supports the death penalty or its abolition, I have no opinion. However, the system itself must be respected, because that is the only common ground we have for communication.
The Death Penalty Abolition Alliance”s role is not to protect perpetrators; its role is to amend the law. While these two might seem indistinguishable, their meanings are clearly different. One is merely a selfish presentation; the other is the pursuit of a greater good.
I believe many people in Taiwan have already wholeheartedly regarded the Death Penalty Abolition Alliance as a group that disrupts social order, and even consider it a mistake for the government to hire members of the alliance to join administrative teams.
To be honest, I think the Death Penalty Abolition Alliance”s methods for handling issues are too crude, a classic case of fighting violence with violence. But that is not what I need to address in this article.
What I want to say is, when the social atmosphere leans towards “executing the death penalty” and “opposing its abolition,” seemingly like irreconcilable enemies, have we been forced to forget that “abolishing the death penalty” is still an option?
When the Death Penalty Abolition Alliance constantly demands abolition but fails to propose or even consider alternative solutions acceptable to the public, they merely “negate” it. I believe this is the most serious problem of the Death Penalty Abolition Alliance — being overly superficial.
The Death Penalty Abolition Alliance offers many benefits after the abolition of the death penalty, such as convicts contributing to society and not occupying social costs. However, they overlook a more fundamental question: why does the death penalty system exist! Not from a legal perspective, but from the perspective of its establishment.
Furthermore, this benefit is not truly for us ordinary citizens. In reality, every May during tax season, we care about the amount of tax, but we usually don”t criticize how the tax money is used extensively. Most people won”t spend time scrutinizing the details of the government budget. Therefore, the solution proposed by the Death Penalty Abolition Alliance is a very paradoxical matter and cannot convince anyone, naturally leading only to each side defending its own position.
The death penalty was not created as a specialized system for the Death Penalty Abolition Alliance or any particular segment of the public, but for a balance between “perpetrators” and “victims.” It is certainly fine for the Death Penalty Abolition Alliance to want to abolish the death penalty, but without providing a further state of balance, at best, they can only be called great dreamers.
People often say that there are two sides to every coin, but in fact, there is still a buffer zone in between, just as there always needs to be a gray area between black and white to conform to human nature and reality. However, the current approach of the Death Penalty Abolition Alliance is merely to steer the issue of the death penalty toward a black-and-white conclusion, which is quite inappropriate and impractical.
Although I have written almost an entire article on just this one example, I am trying to convey that people often easily fall into the black-and-white situation mentioned earlier. If you do not provide a strategy that is “at least seemingly” win-win, or if you refuse to consider the other party”s perspective, it will be difficult to persuade your opponent to trust you, or even to follow in your footsteps. Furthermore, it is more likely to create an incredibly huge chasm between you, so it truly cannot be overlooked.