Opinion: NCC Should Not Become a Sacrificial Flag for Prolonged Political Struggles

The political struggles between the ruling and opposition parties are like a landslide obstructing normal governance, creating a massive backlog of cases akin to a dammed lake. The NCC, once established with high consensus between the ruling and opposition parties as an independent administrative agency, may face an unprecedented crisis of having no commissioners from August 1 due to these political struggles. Normally, public agencies must handle applications within a certain legal timeframe to maintain government efficiency and achieve the purpose of serving the public, which is also an important indicator of national competitiveness. However, due to the political struggles, since December 1, 2026, the NCC has only three commissioners left. All important cases, including regulatory amendments, broadcast license applications and renewals, changes in cable broadcast television operating plans, program content reviews, and cases involving the granting or revocation of licenses, cannot be decided. The applicants are only informed of the current review status, stating that the cases are still pending and can only be determined once the commission is formed. In other words, the legal effect of the cases is still undetermined. According to the NCC Organization Act, the Executive Yuan must submit a list of reappointed commissioners three months before the end of the commissioners' term, i.e., by the end of April 2026. If the list is not approved or other factors cause vacancies, the nomination procedure must be initiated as soon as possible upon notification and submitted to the Legislative Yuan for review. However, the political struggles, like a landslide, obstruct the normal nomination and review procedures. Not only are the existing vacancies delayed in being filled, but even the list for the reappointment of the current three commissioners has been illegally delayed until recently revealed in the media. Regardless of the content of the new list, the formal delay is difficult to explain reasonably. From August 1, the NCC will face an unprecedented crisis where the deliberative body cannot be formed, decisions cannot be made, and it cannot express its intentions externally. Even simple official documents cannot be issued due to the lack of a legal representative. This is not a natural disaster or landslide but a man-made dammed lake. The prolongation of political struggles was a foreseeable event. The slow nomination process, the breaking of the customary practice of personnel freeze by the ruling party, and the reverse operation that may terminate the agency, the advance filling of vacancies by various levels of officials, and the extension of the legislative session to August by the Legislative Yuan, etc., are all preparatory measures for the prolongation. Whether an agency without commissioners and unable to hold commission meetings is already being quietly planned to return to the embrace of a higher-level agency remains to be closely observed. Perhaps the higher-ups are delaying the nomination to make the outside world believe that the ruling party is still striving to select talented individuals, and the inability to pass is due to the obstruction of the opposition party. Using this reason, the ruling party, in order to smoothly promote business, is forced to designate a representative for the NCC. And by the officials being obedient and not causing trouble, not intervening in political attacks and defenses without baggage, and the newcomers eagerly complying with the superior's orders, at that time, the appointed agency representative will return to the operation of the chief without any obstacles. This is a reasonable prediction based on the current signs, but we hope history should not be like this. Independent agencies are needed for the deepening and consolidation of democracy and should not become a sacrificial flag for the prolongation of political struggles. The essence of politics is that both the ruling and opposition parties want to expand their power. Human desires are insatiable, like a snake swallowing an elephant, with ambition, control, deceit, plunder, infringement, becoming king, and hegemony, which are the essence of politics passed down from ancient times to the present. In the past, brute force was used to control the people, but in modern democracy, the support of the people must first be obtained. Those in politics or political figures may not need to abstain from horses for life. However, on the path of politics, having a fighting spirit and ambition higher than that of ordinary people is inevitable because the essence of politics is basically the same from ancient times to the present. What the people fear is submission, and what they expect from political figures in the future when they are in power is the ability to make their enemies submit, which is basically the same logic. Therefore, soft power and dominance are often qualities that top political stars need to possess simultaneously. When they have the opportunity to govern, whether it is their party or their governing team, they will continuously strive to expand their power and move forward on the path to becoming king and hegemony, which is not surprising. But if left unchecked, the path of democracy seems to lead to the door of totalitarianism. Democratic constitutionalism must also limit the power of the ruling party with caution. However, in the midst of political struggles, reason is often lost, and unintentionally developing towards centralization without realizing it, or taking advantage of the fact that the people cannot yet discern the truth to intentionally do so. The end of partisan confrontation is often the rise of hawks, going all out, gambling on who is more harmful, reflecting the characteristics of hawkish politicians' mentality. If hawkish politicians are allowed to dominate internal struggles, it seems to point to the trend of agencies with independence. Being intoxicated with evil struggles without considering the government's inability is more terrifying than corruption. At this time, it is necessary to carefully reconsider why advanced democratic countries, in addition to judicial independence, also establish independent administrative agencies and what their value is. Democratic constitutionalism, to ensure that the people are the masters, to prevent the recurrence of authoritarian centralization, judicial independence is first emphasized. Democratic politics is a new solution derived from the misfortune of authoritarianism. Simply put, based on the theory of natural rights and government of the people, by the people, and for the people, the people are the masters of the state. Through the mechanism of selecting the wise and the able, representatives are elected to draft a democratic constitution, regulating the basic relationship and system between the people, the state, and the government. The appearance of democratic constitutionalism, whether it is a cabinet system, presidential system, dual-head system, or a compromise system, etc., in how to block the above-mentioned tendency of political essence, leading the state to the danger of authoritarian development that harms democratic development, most adopt the basic design of separation of powers among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches to check and balance each other. However, separation does not explain independence, but rather the establishment of mutual checks and balances. Basically, as analyzed in the above political essence, the ruling party, whether it is a presidential system, cabinet system, or other system, always wants to influence or control the operation of other power-responsibility agencies. Maintaining the independence of judicial judgment becomes the first emphasized maintenance red line. This independence is emphasized to give judicial investigation and trial personnel the space to, in a safe and unaffected situation, make professional judgments on cases based on their conscience. And the judiciary, to further eliminate the concentration of power in individual cases and the loss of objectivity, further strengthened the design of multi-element participation outside of independence. Such as jury, citizen judges, identification procedures, etc. Here, judicial independence is explained as giving professional jurisdiction space, not interfering with or affecting its professional operation. If not, the judiciary will also be controlled by the ruling party, and the evils will be rampant, with power and influence judging life, and without power and influence judging death, where is the fairness and justice of the judiciary. The independence of the judiciary and the design of increased multi-element participation have deeply influenced the subsequent design of independent administrative agencies. With the deepening of democracy, OECD further pointed out that there are seven types of administrative business that should be supervised by independent agencies. In addition to the design of judicial independence, with the deepening and development of democracy, the design logic and concept of judicial independence also deeply influence the congress, believing that the administrative power is very huge, and it is still worrying if it is completely controlled by the ruling party. It is suggested that part of its power and responsibilities, such as if it is completely controlled by the ruling party, it will also lose fairness and justice, involve multi-value judgment, or should return to professional judgment to avoid political interference, should be operated independently. Therefore, no matter what kind of democratic constitutionalism, more or less established administrative independent agencies. Among them, the United States, because it is a presidential system country and gives the president the right of veto, therefore the congress established more than sixty independent administrative agencies. Independent administrative agencies, in order to implement deliberative democracy and respond to multi-value judgment, mostly adopt the deliberative system, and its commissioners must be approved by the congress, in order to avoid the winner takes all, in response to the multi-element inclusiveness of democracy, and in order to maintain its independence, there are many related designs. OECD further pointed out that there are seven types of administrative business with high professionalism, needing to avoid political interference or conflict of interest, suggesting that they should be managed by independent agencies independent of traditional administrative departments (Independent Regulatory Agencies). Including competition and fair trade practices (Competition and Trade Practices) to maintain fair market competition, investigate monopolies, joint actions, and unfair competition. Telecommunications and broadcasting (Telecommunications and Broadcasting) to manage spectrum resources, telecommunications operations, and broadcast media content, ensuring an open communications market and consumer rights. Financial regulation (Financial Regulation) to supervise banks, securities, insurance, and other financial institutions, maintaining the stability and soundness of the financial system. Others such as energy regulation (Energy Regulation), public utilities and transportation (Public Utilities and Transport) supervision, securities and trading market (Securities Markets) supervision, data protection and privacy (Data Protection and Privacy) supervision, etc. should be avoided by political forces, and it is appropriate to be professionally managed by independent agencies. This approach is like the internal organs of the human body not being commanded by the conscious brain, but operating independently according to a certain mechanism, which can be more efficient and better take care of the overall interests in a more balanced way. In short, the establishment of independent administrative agencies is to realize fairness and justice, improve the professional efficiency of governance, and respond to the deepening and consolidation of democracy, which is an advanced organizational design. Even as strong as the American Trump president, the decision on the federal funds rate still needs to respect the decision of the Federal Reserve. The supervision of telecommunications and broadcasting also needs to be operated independently by the FCC. That is to say, these independent agencies are not acting according to the slogans, political views, or commands of the ruling party, but are acting through their professional autonomous deliberative judgment. However, the actions of independent agencies still need to be supervised by the congress and bear political and legal responsibilities. Therefore, OECD emphasizes that such agencies should have independence (Independence) and accountability (Accountability).