The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday announced its intention to hold a referendum on the economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) if it regains power after the 2012 presidential elections.
President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) government intends to sign the controversial trade pact with China in June, five months before a referendum proposed by the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) could be held if applications for holding a referendum go smoothly.
In a live TV interview on SET TV on Tuesday night, DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said that if the Ma administration stuck to its timetable for signing the pact, a future DPP administration would have no choice but to subject the agreement to a referendum.
Clarifying the remarks, DPP spokesperson Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) said “an agreement that is expected to have an enormous impact on Taiwan’s economy and its society should be left to the public to decide upon.”
Tsai Ing-wen said that an ECFA, if signed, would widen the income gap and cause middle-class white-collar salaries to stagnate, or even drop.
“Faced with such a large redistribution of wealth, should the public not have a say in this? If we win back governance in 2012, even though we are opposed to this agreement, we will subject an ECFA to a nationwide referendum to let the public decide what they want,” Tsai Chi-chang said.
For the time being, the DPP said it would fully support the TSU’s referendum proposal, which is expected to head into its second phase pending a review by government agencies.
It was unclear if the TSU proposal would be accepted after a similar proposal by the DPP was rejected by the Executive Yuan’s Referendum Review Committee late last year.
At a separate setting yesterday, Ma said the government will address the DPP’s concerns over an ECFA.
He said the debate helped him understand the issues of concern to the DPP and said he would make information on an ECFA more transparent and accessible to the public.
Following Sunday’s debate between Ma and the DPP chairperson, a survey conducted by the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) found that more Taiwanese were against the proposed trade pact, with 36 percent saying they did not want to see the agreement signed, while 28 percent supported signing it.
Another poll by Taiwan Thinkthink found that 44.2 percent believed Tsai Ing-wen had the best performance during the debate, while 39.8 percent said Ma outdid Tsai.
Ma said he cared little about scores on debate performance.
“What I care about is whether the public has a better understanding of an ECFA and whether it supports our plan,” he said.
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