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Opposing lawmakers vow action

In a reaffirmation of their strategy, the pan-blues vowed to counter the groundswell of support enjoyed by their nemesis, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), as a result of his adamant resolve to hold a referendum.

The opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party (PFP) legislative caucuses yesterday again resolved to formulate a resolution that could force Chen to cancel the referendums on the two questions he officially unveiled yesterday.

The questions are scheduled to be approved by the Cabinet during its weekly meeting today.

The Referendum Law (公民投票法) stipulates that the president has the right to initiate a referendum to safeguard the sovereignty and security of the nation if the president deems national security is under threat and sovereignty is in jeopardy. The initiative, however, must also be endorsed by a Cabinet resolution.

KMT Legislator Liao Fung-te (廖風德) said that the opposition caucuses hope to gather sufficient signatures to file the petition to pass the legislative resolution sometime next week.

"What we want to do here is to tell the president that the referendum is unnecessary and inappropriate because the legislative body can handle the matter via a legislative resolution," Liao said.

Due to their majority in the legislative body, the pan-blue parties should easily be able to pass a legislative resolution, which requires approval from half of the 225-member legislature. The petition requires at least 30 lawmakers' signatures.

If such a resolution were passed, opposition parties could demand that the Central Election Commission (CEC) stop preparations for the referendum, according to Article 20 of the Referendum Law.

Article 20 states that the CEC should immediately halt a referendum if the legislature holds a vote on an issue similar to the intended referendum.

In the referendum, the voters would be asked whether they support enhancing the nation's defenses should China refuse to withdraw the missiles it has targeted at Taiwan and to openly renounce the use of force, as well as whether the government should hold talks with China on cross-strait peace and stability.

The opposition caucuses, however, will scrap their original idea of petitioning for a constitutional interpretation and ordering pan-blue magistrates and mayors to boycott the referendum, Liao said.

"We don't think it's necessary [to request a constitutional interpretation] because the referendum is a matter of breaking the Referendum Law not the Constitution," he said.

Instead of ordering county commissioners and city mayors in the pan-blue camp to boycott the referendum, Liao said that the pan-blue parties will ask CEC members to express their party's stance via "pliable moral persuasion." Dismissing the opposition bloc's move to formulate a legislative resolution is aimed at boycotting the planned referendum, another KMT Legislator Huang Teh-fu (黃德福) said that it was merely a "friendly and rational reminder" that the referendum should not be used as a political tool to sway voters.

"I think the DPP overestimates our power to hinder the planned referendum," Huang said. "What we can do is just to remind them of the legality of the referendum and that what we care about is that the presidential election goes as smoothly as possible."

Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said that the planned referendum would mark a milestone in the nation's democratic development.

"Over the past 20 years, Taiwan has pried open three doors of democracy and traveled across three mountains of freedom, including lifting the ban on political parties, directly electing the head of state and electing new legislators," Lin said. "Now we're opening the fourth door and scaling the fourth mountain: that is, to hold the nation's first national referendum."

To better educate the public about the planned referendum and encourage the electorate to cast their ballots, Lin said that the Cabinet will launch a full-scale information campaign in a week.

"We plan to distribute 9 million brochures to 7 million families nationwide by the middle of this month," Lin said. "We'll also run an ad about the two questions for referendum on the front pages in seven of the nation's newspapers tomorrow [Wednesday]."

In addition, the Cabinet will start running TV commercials in the middle of this month encouraging the public to cast their votes and advocating the necessity, urgency and appropriateness of the referendum.
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