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Referendum needed on more than one subject

Thursday, Jun 05, 2003, Page 8

While SARS spread across Tai-wan, the World Health Organiza-tion (WHO) refused to open its doors for Taiwan. Even though Taiwan applied for observer status as a "health entity," it still suffered as a result of the Chinese delegation's overbearing pressure.

Such frustration and humiliation once again reminds Taiwan-ese of their nation's lack of international status and that the cold truth is that Taiwan is an international orphan.

As the leader of the nation, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) must have experienced this frustration and humiliation the deepest. At the DPP's Central Standing Committee meeting on May 20, Chen said that he would invite all political parties and all circles of society to discuss a referendum on the WHO bid. Such a referendum would show the world the consensus and determination of this nation's people.

Who could have expected that such a rational suggestion would meet with scorn and harsh words from the pan-blue camp, who accused Chen of playing a populist game, of seeking independence and of blurring the focus of the presidential election.

Referendums are everyday business in many nations. Taking advantage of the presidential election to hold a referendum on entry into the WHO could lead to widespread debate. A clarification of the position of each pair of presidential and vice-presidential candidates would help all voters make a rational choice.

Following the president's announcement, the Cabinet said that in addition to holding a consultative referendum on the WHO bid together with the presidential election next year, it would also be possible to hold a referendum concerning the continuation of the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant.

Because the controversy surrounding the power plant issue involves energy policies and a huge budget, the budget was frozen as early as 1986 when the KMT was still in power and then unfrozen in 1992. But that was not the only glitch early on in the project. The Control Yuan twice handed out reprimands regarding the lack of an environmental impact assessment and illegal licensing for the power plant in 1995 and 1999, but it was still unable to block construction. Nor do we need mention the constitutional dispute arising from the work stoppage and continuation of construction following the transfer of power in 2000.

This shows over and over again that the major political parties and the existing political mechanisms are incapable of stopping this dispute. This is why Lin I-hsiung (林義雄) and the Nuclear 4 Referendum Initiative Association persist. Based on a sense of historical responsibility and persistence in democratic ideals, this should not be simplified into a matter of unification or independence, nor is it a matter of shirking one's responsibility and solving just about any problem by resorting to a referendum.

To sum up, we support holding a referendum on the question of Taiwan's entry into the WHO and the question of whether or not to continue building the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant together with the presidential election next year. These two issues reflect Taiwan's international situation and our difficulties with sustainable development. We demand that each party's presidential candidates clearly state their views on these issues and engage in thorough debate so that the people of Taiwan at the same time as they choose a new president can show that sovereignty rests in them, thus further confirming the fact that Taiwan already has developed into a civil society.

Wu Shu-min, Tseng Kui-hai, Ho Li-hsing and Peter Huang are the chairmen of the Northern, Southern, Central and Eastern Taiwan Society, respectively.

Translated by Perry Svensson
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