As the indefinite hunger strike by former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄) enters its fourth day today, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is to meet with DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) to address Lin’s demands.
The 73-year-old Lin began his hunger strike on Tuesday demanding that the Ma administration respect the will of the people and halt construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮).
Insisting that the decades-long issue should be put to a vote in a referendum in accordance with the Referendum Act (公民投票法), Ma has brushed off suggestions to resolve the crisis, including those proposed by several lawmakers from his own party, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
The Referendum Act has been dubbed a “birdcage” law that is structurally flawed so that any referendum is doomed to fail, mainly because of its high thresholds.
Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) met with KMT lawmakers at 5pm yesterday to ensure the lawmakers toe the party line, ahead of a meeting of the legislative plenary session today in which the DPP plans to table a statute that would allow a referendum on the plant to be decided by a simple majority vote.
After two-and-a-half hours of discussions, Jiang convinced some KMT lawmakers, who had earlier advised the government to respond positively to the demands made by Lin and the DPP to end Lin’s hunger strike, to change their positions.
The two conclusions reached at the meeting strictly followed what Ma and Jiang proposed.
First, the government will proceed with construction of the plant and ongoing safety checks and tests, but it will not install fuel rods and will not activate the plant until a referendum is held to decide whether it can be put into operation.
Second, all KMT lawmakers are required to attend the legislative meeting today to block the DPP’s plans to pass the special statute, or else they will face party discipline.
Earlier yesterday, KMT Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) told a group of reporters that he was against the idea of putting the issue to a referendum.
Lin said at the time that he would suggest that the legislature pass a resolution allowing the Executive Yuan to announce, without having to hold a referendum, that the construction of the plant will continue to completion and safety checks and tests will be performed, but the plant will not be activated.
KMT Legislator Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) had said that the Executive Yuan should announce a halt to the construction of the plant immediately after the legislature adopts a resolution to support its proposed plan to scrap the facility.
KMT lawmakers Alex Tsai (蔡正元), Su Ching-chuan (蘇清泉) and Chiang Hui-chen (江惠貞), among others, who had floated other proposals, did not force their ideas through at the meeting.
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