Former DPP chairman Lin I-hsiung (
"Regardless of whether it's the president, the premier or an opposition lawmaker, once they oppose a plebiscite, which is a basic right in all democratic countries, they are not qualified to remain in their posts," Lin said.
Lin, who is leading anti-nuclear groups in a protest walk around the nation, made the remarks in Ilan County.
"Moreover, if the government cannot work hard to find alternative energy sources but insists on building nuclear power plants, such a government is not worthy of survival," he said.
Since the early 1990s, Lin has led non-violent resistance, adopting the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi, and in 1994 organized the Association for Promoting Public Voting on Nuclear Plant Four. In September that year he launched the first wave of nationwide anti-nuclear protests.
More than 300 supporters followed Lin in the walk across Ilan County to promote the concept that public voting is a fundamental right of citizens in a democracy.
In the 2000 presidential election, Lin, then DPP chairman, used his influence to coordinate resources and factions within the party to support Chen Shui-bian's (
That promise has not been kept.
In October 2000, the Cabinet announced a halt in construction of the plant. The policy immediately triggered criticism from opposition parties.
The DPP government finally surrendered and again started construction in February 2001.
To give Chen time to resolve the issue, Lin has been silent for the past two years. But Lin's voice has been growing louder.
The Association for Promoting Public Voting on Nuclear Plant Four urged Chen to stick to his ideals.
"He has failed to adhere to his ideals -- that's why he always seems to swing back and forth when under pressure," said Cheng Hsien-yu (
"Since we elected him, we must keep monitoring the president's performance and put pressure on him," Cheng said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching