Opposition lawmakers yesterday blocked a DPP attempt to make the enactment of a referendum law a priority issue on the legislative agenda.
The opposition fears that a plan to hold a referendum during the year-end legislative race has become a DPP tactic to drag out the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
Legislative Yuan speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), who hosted yesterday's inter-party negotiations, said the opposition unanimously concluded that the law should follow due legislative process like any other, which means that substantive negotiations should be conducted before it is submitted to the legislature for final consideration.
"We are not going to single out the referendum law. All pieces of legislation get equal treatment. A bill can move on to the legislature when negotiations are complete," Wang said.
Following the Executive Yuan's announcement on Wednesday to resume the plant's construction, the opposition yesterday reopened the door to negotiations with the DPP, and the two parties held their first round of dialogue in more than three months.
The main purpose of yesterday's discussion was to arrange the agenda for the first meeting of the session on Feb. 20, when Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) will give the Cabinet's biannual policy address to the legislature. The legislature had refused to let Chang make the address last October, in protest over the Cabinet's decision to scrap the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant project.
But just as the tensions between the ruling and opposition parties are calming down, the referendum law is triggering a new conflict.
Opposition legislators considered the proposal by convener of the DPP legislative caucus Chou Po-lun (周伯倫) to prioritize the referendum law as a crude attempt to secure the support of anti-nuclear voters in the year-end election.
"We don't wish to see any political party use inter-party negotiations or even the legislature as a theater to vie for the year-end elections," said Hsieh Chi-ta (
A total of eight proposals for the referendum law, raised by different legislators, are now available in the legislature, some of which have finished a preliminary review. The Executive Yuan has so far not submitted any proposal to the legislature.
The opposition insisted that the referendum law should not be linked to the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant project, saying that otherwise political instability would continue.
"The referendum law should only apply to a public policy that has not been implemented. A project that is already underway, such as the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, cannot be scrapped arbitrarily," KMT caucus whip Cheng Yung-chin (
Shen Chih-Hwei (沈智慧), deputy convener of the People First Party caucus, said the DPP should stop arguing about the power plant and focus its strength on revitalizing the nation's economy and improving the unemployment situation.
"With the dispute over the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant just concluded, [the DPP] is now trying other ways to ... provoke combat. We don't want to see this happen, nor do the people," Shen said.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft