Civic groups yesterday criticized the high threshold required by the Referendum Act (公民投票法) and accused the Cabinet of trying to escape its responsibilities by putting the completion of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant to a referendum.
Responding to the Cabinet’s announcement on Monday, civic groups led by the Green Citizens’ Action Alliance (GCAA) and Citizens of the Earth, Taiwan (CET), held a demonstration in front of the legislature yesterday, urging political parties not to make the issue a political struggle and the Cabinet to take responsibility and stop the project.
“An unsafe nuclear power plant will not become a safe one through a referendum,” the groups said.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
Thomas Chan (詹順貴), an attorney who has worked closely with environmental groups, said the referendum would be a “false referendum” because the law requires more than 50 percent of eligible voters to vote for the result of a referendum to be valid, making the initiative to “stop the plant’s construction” hard to pass as it would require at least 4.5 million votes.
CET representative Yang Chun-lang (楊俊朗) said a referendum would not prevent nuclear disasters from happening, adding that after the many scandals during the construction of the power plant, the government should take responsibility, stop the project and reject any additional budget, rather than handing responsibility to voters.
GCAA chairperson Lai Wei-chieh (賴偉傑) said the government should stop threatening the public with slower economic development and higher electricity prices and apologize for spending so much taxpayers’ money on the project.
GCAA secretary-general Tsuei Su-hsin (崔愫欣) urged the public to protest against nuclear power at a national parade on March 9.
However, the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union (TEPU) held a press conference to express its positive attitude toward the government’s decision, but also stressed that the law should be amended.
“The Referendum Act has many flaws,” TEPU founder and chairman Shih Hsin-min (施信民) said.
Shih said the high threshold should be amended and he suggested that the initiative should be a “positive discourse” asking “should the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant construction project be continued” — meaning it would need the approval of 50 percent of eligible voters for construction to be continued — rather than the negative discourse Jiang mentioned on Monday.
“Also, both sides of the issue should get fair resources to advocate their position to the public before the referendum takes place,” he said, adding that another way to deal with the issue would be to pass an amendment to the Nuclear Reactor Facilities Regulation Act (核子反應器設施管制法) allowing residents living within a 50km radius of a nuclear power plant to decide its fate via a local referendum.
Gloria Hsu (徐光蓉), TEPU academic committee convener and a professor of atmospheric sciences at National Taiwan University, criticized the Cabinet for “instructing” lawmakers to act according to its will and stigmatizing anti-nuclear groups as “irrational” and “selfish” for “sacrificing cheaper electricity and economic development.”
The group said it would organize an anti-nuclear protest in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Jinshan District (金山) on Sunday.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2