Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
"I'm not against any of the councilors' presenting such a draft proposal but the city government will not take the initiative to do so," Ma said.
PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
He added that it would be meaningless for a local government to enact a bylaw similar to legislation proposed by the central government and approved by the legislature.
Nor does it make sense for a local government to enact a bylaw different from the legislation approved by the Legislative Yuan because local governments are obliged to abide by such a law, he said.
Ma made the remarks yesterday afternoon during the question-and-answer session on the council floor in response to a question by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) councilors Chen Li-hui (陳孋輝) and Lin Yi-hua (林奕華) on whether Ma would throw his weight behind the proposal.
The proposal was made earlier in the morning by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) councilors Liu Yao-ren (
The three held a press conference in the morning to propose that the city enact an initiative and referendum bylaw of its own to provide a legal basis for citizens to decide on certain local issues.
Ma said his stance on the matter was clear.
"I support the idea of allowing people to voice their opinions via a referendum but it has to be conducted in accordance with the law," Ma said. "The result of a referendum has to be legally binding and people, not the government, should be the party to initiate such a move."
Liu, citing the Law on Local Government Systems (
"We hope the mayor can support our proposal to allow citizens over the age of 18 to voice their individual opinions via referendums on major local affairs such as the relocation of the city's Sungshan Airport," he said, adding that the city chapter of the DPP has completed the draft of the bylaw.
Lan said the city should take the initiative to enact a bylaw to let citizens be their own lord and master since Ma has been stressing that the city needs a legal basis to cooperate with the central government's referendum plan.
"Once approved by city council, the city will then be legally authorized to hold referendums," he said.
Ma has vowed to solicit support from other KMT-managed counties and cities to boycott the Cabinet's plan for holding a national referendum on or before the presidential election.
To counter that possibility, the Cabinet's referendum review committee has unveiled a contingency measure.
Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (
"Taipei City councilors' proposing to enact an initiative and referendum bylaw signifies that they're eager to see the legislation of such a law," Lin said. "The best-case-scenario is that the legislative body approves the referendum law which we sent to the legislature over a year ago as soon as possible."
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:
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