Yesterday's weekly Cabinet meeting became a verbal battlefield for Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Kaohsiung Mayor Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) over the planned referendum.
Claiming to speak on behalf of the public and local government chiefs, Ma questioned the legality and necessity of the referendum proposed by President Chen Shui-bian (
He also proposed that the referendum be separated from the presidential election at the polls.
Hsieh, however, questioned Ma's representation of the people and other elected local leaders and said Ma misconstrued the Referendum Law (
Hsieh branded Ma's criticism of the planned referendum an insult.
Seeking to relieve the tension among his colleagues, Premier Yu Shyi-kun called on government employees and agencies to fulfill their duties and help the Cabinet hold the first national referendum.
Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (
As the Referendum Law clearly mandates that the president has the right to initiate a referendum to safeguard the sovereignty and security of the nation if he deems the nation is in danger, Yu said, it is without a doubt legal for Chen to hold the referendum.
According to Lin, the war of words between Ma and Hsieh and other Cabinet officials started when Ma called on Yu to send Chen's referendum proposal to the Referendum Review Committee, which would then examine its legality, necessity, urgency and appropriateness.
Ma argued that the referendum is not necessary because the nation is not in a state of emergency.
"The nation has been under military threat from China for half a century but has never been in a state of emergency. If Chen can call a `peace referendum' to safeguard national security, do future presidents have to do so every year?" he asked.
Ma also proposed separating the presidential election and the referendum because they are two different kinds of polls bound by two separate pieces of legislation and yielding two different results.
Cabinet officials, including Hsieh, Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) and Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), however, said it is legal for Chen Shui-bian to call the referendum and that the proposal does not require the consent of the Referendum Review Committee.
Chen Ding-nan said it was wrong for Ma to mention the peace referendum and state of emergency in the same breath because the referendum is meant to pre-empt a possible emergency situation, while a state of emergency is declared to deal with an emergency situation.
He said it is inappropriate for the Referendum Review Committee, a subordinate unit of the Cabinet, to review the referendum proposal, adding that the Referendum Law does not require the committee to do so.
Hsieh, meanwhile, criticized Ma's likening of the referendum to an act of theft and his branding of civil servants cooperating to hold the referendum as Chen's accomplices.
"It's clearly an insult and stigmatization of the head of state and civil servants," he said.
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