Taipei Times
Date: Nov 09, 2020
By: Hsieh Chun-lin and Kayleigh Madjar / Staff reporter, with staff writer

Experts at a forum organized by the Taiwan New Constitution Foundation in Taipei yesterday compared constitutional reform efforts in Chile and Taiwan, saying that the Legislative Yuan’s newly formed committee on the issue would “accomplish nothing.”

Chileans on Oct. 25 voted on whether to draft a new constitution to replace the one written during the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, and if so, which type of government a constitution should stipulate.

More than 78 percent of voters supported drafting a new constitution, while 79 percent preferred a government elected entirely by popular vote, rather than splitting the decision with the legislature.

Chilean society has experienced severe economic inequality exacerbated by the privatization of healthcare, pensions and other services, said Kung Kwo-wei (宮國威), an associate professor and chairman of the Graduate Institute of Latin American Studies at Tamkang University.
[FULL  STORY]