President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday engaged in a heated discussion over the fate of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, but failed to reach any consensus during the 90-minute talk.
Ma said the nearly completed plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮) must be finished so it can be “maintained in operable condition.”
“That way, we will have an operable nuclear power plant that can be put into operation when we need it. If construction is terminated now, the plant will be scrapped,” Ma said in response to Su’s urging that the plant be stopped.
Photo: CNA
The two men met at the Presidential Office, while former DPP chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄) entered the fourth day of what he has said will be an infinite hunger strike to back calls to terminate the project, as mainstream public opinion demands.
Su suggested two ways to end the plant project, but both were rejected by Ma.
Su first suggested that the Executive Yuan announce a halt to the plant and present a report on the decision to the legislature for approval, although it is a constitutionally allowed way for a change to major policy.
Both the DPP, which was in power for eight years, and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) are responsible for the project, which has been a source of controversy for more than three decades, Su said.
“Let us together resolve the issue,” the DPP leader said.
“If you want, in line with the [Council of Grand Justices’] Constitutional Interpretation [No. 520], the Executive Yuan can propose to the legislature to stop the plant,” Su said.
However, Ma said that when the DPP administration called a halt to building the facility in October 2000, the stock market plummeted from 6,400 to 4,600 points and stayed down for three straight months.
He “would rather not repeat that mistake,” Ma said.
“It would have too much of a [negative] impact on society,” he said.
Terminating the project now would also create a massive waste of money, given the estimated NT$280 billion (US$9.23 billion) that has been invested in the project over three decades, he added.
“We cannot waste money like that. The construction of the plant ought to be completed. Installing fuel rods in the plant’s reactors is also part of the construction process,” the president said.
Su said it would cost the nation NT$46 billion more to complete the plant, in addition to the cost of conducting safety checks.
Su also brought up putting the fate of the plant to a national referendum, which Ma said he agreed with.
However, Ma declined to promise that as KMT chairman he would not use party disciplinary measures to demand that KMT lawmakers toe the party line on issues related to referendum thresholds.
If the nuclear issue is put to a referendum, thresholds lower than those specified in the Referendum Act (公民投票法) should be applied to the vote, if it is not decided by a simple majority, Su said.
That none of the six national referendums held so far have seen a voter turnout of over 50 percent, as required under the 2004 act for a referendum to be valid, has proved that it was a “bird cage” law that dooms any referendum to fail, Su said.
“Chairman Su, have you used party discipline to force DPP lawmakers to vote for the party’s policy? Have you?” Ma said.
“Every party has its discipline. You cannot ask me not to impose party discipline on KMT lawmakers if you do not abstain from the use of party discipline as well,” he said.
Su suggested that the KMT, the DPP, the Taiwan Solidarity Union and the People First Party jointly facilitate legislative passage of a special statute for a referendum on the nuclear issue to be held under a fair referendum system.
The president said he would consult with KMT lawmakers.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)