The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) is showing no sign of giving up its fight to turn the recently signed cross-strait trade agreement over to a public referendum.
Delivering nearly 100 boxes, each holding more than 1,000 signed petition forms, to the Central Election Commission (CEC) yesterday, TSU officials said the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) could alter the status quo for Taiwan and lock the country into a “one China” framework.
“Everyone can clearly see that this ECFA will change Taiwan’s economic, social and political relationship with China,” TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) said outside the CEC in Taipei. “President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is unilaterally changing the cross-strait situation, and we want to ask him: Doesn’t this require the people’s approval?”
PHOTO: CNA
This is the second referendum proposal on the controversial agreement raised by the TSU, which wants to ask voters whether they agree with the government’s decision to sign the ECFA with China. The earlier proposal was rejected by the Referendum Review Commission last month after it said the TSU’s referendum question and content contradicted one another.
Flanked by a number of pro-independence organizations, including the Taiwan Association of University Professors and the World United Formosans for Independence, a dozen TSU officials arrived outside the commission, wheeling dozens of brown boxes containing the petition forms.
An apparent misunderstanding initially took place between the TSU officials and police after police officers first closed the outside gates, barring entry to party officials trying to hand their petition forms over to the CEC.
Amid cries from dozens of protesters at the scene, who yelled that a referendum “is a public right,” and “the ECFA needs a referendum,” police opened the outside gate to a small number of TSU officials including Huang, but subsequently tried to close the glass doors to the building.
All of the TSU’s 105,000 petition forms were eventually delivered after CEC officials came out to officially accept the TSU proposal, which prevented tension from boiling over as more than 20 police officers looked on.
Under the Referendum Act (公民投票法), the CEC has 15 days to either accept the proposal and pass it on to the Referendum Review Committee or send it back to the organizers pending corrections of any errors found.
The referendum review committee must then make a decision on whether to give the go-ahead within one month.
If passed, the TSU will have to gather a total of 860,000 petition forms — 5 percent of the voting public in the last presidential election — before the proposal can be put to the ballot box.
Fearing a repeat of last month’s rejection of the more than 110,000 petitions submitted at the time, Huang called on members of the Referendum Review Committee to avoid politicizing the referendum process.
“The committee and the CEC are responsible for aiding the people’s right to a referendum, not blocking it. Committee members should not see the public as the enemy,” Huang said.
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
A Taiwanese man apologized on Friday after saying in a social media post that he worked with Australia to provide scouting reports on Taiwan’s team, enabling Australia’s victory in this year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC), saying it was a joke and that he did not hold any position with foreign teams or Taiwan’s sports training center. Chen Po-hao (陳柏豪) drew the rage of many Taiwan baseball fans when he posted online on Thursday night, claiming credit for Australia’s 3-0 win over Taiwan in the opening game for Pool C, saying he worked as a physical therapist with the national team and
RSS