DPP lawmakers warn of confrontation

DPP legislators said yesterday that failure to pass a law to legalize a referendum on the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (核四) project this December would only lead to more political confrontation.

DPP legislators Lee Wen-chung (李文忠), Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) and Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), want a referendum on whether to continue building the power plant to take place at the same time as the year-end elections for the Legislative Yuan and city and county chiefs.

Their comments yesterday were also endorsed by independent legislator Eugene Jao (趙永清).

"If the planned referendum doesn't have any legal effect, it will trigger even more political confrontation," Lee said.

Reacting to a strong call from anti-nuclear groups and DPP politicians following the Executive Yuan's recent announcement of the resumption of the project, Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) said on Friday the Executive Yuan was studying the possibility of holding a referendum in December.

Chang admitted, however, that without a referendum law, the ballot would be nothing more than an opinion poll, which would not have any practical effect on changing the policy.

Chang has expressed hope that the legislature will make enactment of a referendum law a priority so that an institutionalized measure to solve disputes over public policy will be established.

Though the Constitution stipulates that the people are entitled to the right of referendum, a law governing the holding of referendums has never been passed.

A primary reason for this is that the DPP's long-term attempt to promote the referendum law has been linked to its much-publicized goal of declaring independence for Taiwan as a result of a plebiscite.

Addressing this concern, Lee said the DPP is willing to negotiate with opposition parties to set a restriction in the proposed law to exclude any referendums on issues relating to national sovereignty.

As an alternative, the law could specifically prohibit any referendums on the independence and unification issues, while only allowing referendums on "changing the status quo" in the country, Lee said.

In addition, the legislators suggested that the proposed law set a high threshold in terms of the qualifications to initiate a referendum and the turnout rate in the ballot, so as to prevent an abuse of the mechanism.

Also, they said a referendum should be held along with an election to keep the costs involved low.

They said they disagree with arguments by opposition parties that public policy already underway, such as that relating to the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, should be ineligible for a referendum.