Surveys on Oct. 28 and 29 showed that support for construction had fallen to just over 40 percent and opposition had started to grow, exceeding 30 percent. By Nov. 3, there was almost no difference between the two sides. In surveys on Nov. 4 to 6, opponents of the plant exceeded supporters by 2 percent and finally in surveys from around Nov. 10, opponents of the plant exceeded supporters by 17 percent.
What people worry about most is the possibility of an accident at a nuclear power plant. Everyone has to count on Taipower's capacity to handle such a crisis and people's confidence in the company's ability to do so became a key issue. Confidence in Taipower has never been very high. In 1993, a popular survey asked, "Are you confident about Taipower's ability to respond to a serious accident at a nuclear power plant?" Those who were confident outnumbered those who weren't by a very narrow margin, with a ratio of 42 to 37. Starting in 1994, those who were confident in Taipower's capabilities were always fewer than those who were not. Starting in 1996, the percentage of those who were confident stabilized at approximately 30 percent and those who weren't amounted to a little over 40 percent.
Obviously people have no real confidence that Taipower could handle precisely the kind of problem that gives the most cause for concern. There is a close connection between these worries and the fact that more and more people later opposed the new plant. The two trends -- the decline in confidence and the falling proportion of people supporting the construction of the plant -- were virtually in step with one another.
In past opinion polls on the plant, over 70 percent of respondents consistently felt that construction should be approved by the people living near the plant site. Up until November 2000, 72 percent still held this view. Taipower's propaganda, however, asserted that there was no legal basis for a referendum. The company paid no heed whatsoever to the opposition of 96 percent of the people living near the site and instead chose to discredit the voting process by saying, "The organization sponsoring the referendum is biased in its viewpoint. The results of the referendum therefore do not reflect popular opinion." This kind of attitude amounts to butting heads with the people. It is forcible suppression of their will and certainly is no way to solve the problem.
The problem of what to do about the plant has incited conflict between the administration and the opposition. I sincerely hope that the administration and the opposition parties can face the dispute over the plant objectively so that the problem can finally be solved.
Chiu Hei-yuan is a research fellow of the Institute of Sociology at the Academia Sinica and a professor of sociology at National Taiwan University.
Translated by Ethan Harkness
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