The DPP's legislative caucus agreed yesterday that issues concerning public policies, such as the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant project, could be determined by a public referendum.
The ruling party issued a press release yesterday under mounting pressure from former DPP chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄). Lin led a group of anti-nuclear activists to a protest in front of the Executive Yuan, demanding the employment of a plebiscite to decide the future of the controversial power plant in Taipei County.
In October 2000, the government decided to halt construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant. But the following January, the government gave in to pressure from opposition parties and reversed its decision -- giving the go ahead to complete construction of the plant.
The DPP caucus leaders said that voting is a fundamental right of the people, but it will require cross-party negotiation on the application of such a law before it could be presented to the legislature.
Given the highly contentious nature of the power plant, the DPP supports the idea of a referendum determining the future of the plant's construction based on the referendum law. In this way, the procedure and legality of the referendum could be clearly regulated.
Chen Chi-mai (
In contrast to the DPP's more conservative position, the TSU vowed to push for a referendum law that can be applied to all issues, including politically sensitive subjects related to national identity.
The TSU's meeting of central executives reached an agreement that the TSU will propose a draft next Monday, calling for cross-party support in order to "return the people's rights to the people."
TSU lawmaker Chen Chien-ming (
He said people have the right to express their opinions on any issue related to their lives and this includes political issues.
The TSU's initiative has won endorsement from Chai Trong Chai (
Chen Chi-mai said his caucus has not yet decided on where it stands in regard to the TSU's scheme, adding that the details of the law would be discussed by the legislative committee once it passed the first reading.
The German city of Hamburg on Oct. 14 named a bridge “Kaohsiung-Brucke” after the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. The footbridge, formerly known as F566, is to the east of the Speicherstadt, the world’s largest warehouse district, and connects the Dar-es-Salaam-Platz to the Brooktorpromenade near the Port of Hamburg on the Elbe River. Timo Fischer, a Free Democratic Party member of the Hamburg-Mitte District Assembly, in May last year proposed the name change with support from members of the Social Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union. Kaohsiung and Hamburg in 1999 inked a sister city agreement, but despite more than a quarter-century of
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The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau (MJIB) has been investigating nine shell companies working with Prince Holding Group, and the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office is seeking further prosecution of alleged criminals, a source said yesterday. The nine companies and three Taiwanese nationals were named by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Oct. 14 as Specially Designated Nationals as a result of a US federal court indictment. Prince Holding founder Chen Zhi (陳志) has been charged with fraud, conspiracy, money laundering and overseeing Prince Holding’s suspected forced-labor camps in Cambodia, the indictment says. Intelligence shared between Taiwan,
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