Anti-nuclear activists seek clear rules for referendum

Anti-nuclear activists yesterday demanded clear rules for a referendum after President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) sided with former DPP chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄) on the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant.

Lin will lead activists on a 1,000km march across Taiwan beginning Sept. 21 in an effort to rally support for a national referendum on the future of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant.

Lin is expected to announce plans for the march on Sept. 18. He and his followers will march 20km every weekend for at least 50 weeks. Lin intends to raise environmental awareness and is seeking a national referendum on the future of the plant by 2004.

Lin's action was interpreted as a criticism of the ruling DPP, which reversed its decision made in October 2000 to halt construction of the nuclear plant after giving in to opposition parties in January last year.

On July 3, during anti-nuclear activist Chen Ching-tang's (陳慶塘) public farewell in Kungliao, Lin said that a government which embraces the controversial nuclear plant rather than seek alternative sources of energy was a failure.

In addition, Lin said, political figures violating the people's will were unqualified to serve in a democratic government.

Responding to Lin's plans for a march, Chen said on Friday Lin's views were the same as his own. Chen said that essential issues pertaining to people's livelihoods, including the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, would someday be decided by public referendum.

Anti-nuclear activists, however, were skeptical about Chen's words, noting he signed an agreement promising to scrap the nuclear plant in November 1999.

Wu Wen-tung (吳文通), spokesman for the Yenliao Anti-Nuclear Self-Help Association (鹽寮反核自救會) in Kungliao, where the controversial plant is situated, told the Taipei Times yesterday that a referendum held by insincere political figures would be in vain.

"What we Kungliao people are concerned about is the government's attitude toward the referendum," Wu said.

Wu said that a referendum held by the Kungliao Township Office in 1996 showed that 96 percent of voters opposed the establishment of the nuclear plant in Kungliao. Turnout was about 70 percent, Wu said.

The spokesman said, however, that the then KMT-dominated government was reluctant to follow the people's will and argued that the referendum lacked any legal basis.

"What we Kungliao people doubt is not the democratic mechanism of a public referendum but political figures' attitudes," Wu said.

Wu said anti-nuclear activists in Kungliao had been cheated by the DPP for too long, adding residents' long-term support for the party has yielded only "a series of lies."

"Now, from president, to premier, to Taipei County commissioner, to Kungliao township chief, all are served by DPP members. Did this change a thing with regard to the nuclear plant?" Wu said.

Lai Wei-chieh (賴偉傑) of the Green Citizen Action Alliance (綠色公民行動聯盟), said President Chen should also reveal his attitude toward the referendum carried out by Kungliao people in 1996 to clarify his stance.