Over 1,000 activists signed a public letter supporting President Chen Shui-bian's (
To gather public support for the referendum, eight prominent activists from different fields launched a signature-collection drive via the Internet last week. They held a press conference yesterday to explain their motive and introduce the results of the drive, which they also publicized with full-page advertisements in two Chinese-language newspapers.
The letter said that the first ever referendum in Taiwan "establishes a historic paradigm," "realizes the core values of democracy," "demonstrates Taiwan's collective will to the world" and "unites the people of the nation."
"Our support for the referendum is not equivalent to our supporting any particular political party or presidential candidate," said women's rights activist Lee Yuan-chen (李元貞), who was one of the eight organizers of the campaign.
"While the political parties are only considering their campaign interests in regard to the referendum issue, we appeal to the public to focus on the significance of the establishment of Taiwan's first tool of direct democracy," Lee said.
Ku Chung-hwa (
"Once we launch the referendum mechanism, the people of the country can use it to solve deadlocked issues, such as educational reform, constitutional reform, or halving the Legislative Yuan," Ku said.
Ku said that the establishment of the referendum helped to normalize Taiwan's democratic system and therefore, "the content of the first referendum, or the wording of the question, is not the crucial issue."
Academia Sinica sociologist Michael Hsiao (
"The second referendum we expect to implement is to ask people how to accomplish legislative reform, specifically whether or not to halve the number of seats in the Legislative Yuan," Hsiao said, adding that the topic was endorsed by almost everyone in Taiwan, but had been boycotted by politicians.
"Academic Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh (
The other five organizers of the signature drive are Huang Wu-hsiung (黃武雄), Lee Ming-liang (李明亮), former Department of Health director-general, Allen Houng (洪裕宏), professor of the Institute of Neuron Science at National Yang-Ming University, John Chen (陳傳岳), president of the Judicial Reform Foundation, and Chang Chung-cheng (張宗仁), president of National Sun Yat-sen University.
The pan-blue camp immediately criticized the signature drive, saying it was organized by pro-green scholars and that the letter did not represent the real voice of academic and professional circles.
"The content of the public letter is absurd, as if it were just an article written by an elementary-school student," said the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) spokesman Alex Tsai. "If the referendum brings any problems to the nation, those who signed the letters should shoulder the responsibility."
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) defended the letter, saying that its signatories made their decision in accordance with their ideals, rather than their political stance, and they should therefore not suffer having their beliefs being belittled by the KMT.
"The pan-blue alliance owes an apology to those people," said DPP presidential campaign headquarters spokesman Wu Nai-jen (吳乃仁).
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
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