The government holding a referendum that complies with the Referendum Act (公民投票法) is either a political ploy or a prank on the people, former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄) wrote in an article about the Cabinet’s initiative to hold a referendum on the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Gongliao District (貢寮).
“Unfortunately, the Executive Yuan’s referendum proposal was full of political calculations. It was a cheap trick and a prank that plays the public for fools,” wrote Lin, who has been a staunch anti-nuclear power activist for the past two decades.
The article was published late on Friday on the Web site of former DPP chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) Thinking Taiwan Foundation.
The Referendum Act, which was enacted in 2003, laid down “unreasonable and strict” regulations that made the passage of referendums “almost impossible,” he said.
The act requires that a referendum have an electorate turnout of at least 50 percent and be approved by 51 percent of voters to be valid, stipulations that have been described as a “double 50 percent shield.”
These restrictions are why only the president, the KMT and the DPP have been able to submit a referendum proposal over the past decade and also why none of these proposals have passed, he added.
Lin said that what the Executive Yuan should do is immediately suspend construction of the power plant, or, at the very least, have the integrity to phrase the referendum so it asks the people if they support the plant’s construction, instead of its suspension.
The Executive Yuan is obviously trying to take advantage of the act’s restrictions by making the position it does not support the question it puts to the people, knowing that the referendum will likely fail, the DPP heavyweight said.
“It is unnecessary for the Executive Yuan to ask the people if they support suspending the project since the Executive Yuan has no intention of stopping the construction,” Lin said.
It is “common sense” that Taiwan would not able to withstand a nuclear disaster like the one at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Japan in 2011, the former DPP chairman said.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a "tsunami watch" alert after a magnitude 8.7 earthquake struck off the Kamchatka Peninsula in northeastern Russia earlier in the morning. The quake struck off the east coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula at 7:25am (Taiwan time) at a depth of about 19km, the CWA said, citing figures from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The CWA's Seismological Center said preliminary assessments indicate that a tsunami could reach Taiwan's coastal areas by 1:18pm today. The CWA urged residents along the coast to stay alert and take necessary precautions as waves as high as 1m could hit the southeastern
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
Instead of threatening tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, the US should try to reinforce cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductor development to take on challenges from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a Taiwanese think tank said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board import duties of 32 percent on Taiwan-made goods and levy a separate tariff on semiconductors, which Taiwan is hoping to avoid. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), a National Science and Technology Council think tank, said that US efforts should focus on containing China’s semiconductor rise rather than impairing Taiwan. “Without
The National Museum of Taiwan Literature is next month to hold an exhibition in Osaka, Japan, showcasing the rich and unique history of Taiwanese folklore and literature. The exhibition, which is to run from Aug. 10 to Aug. 20 at the city’s Central Public Hall, is part of the “We Taiwan” at Expo 2025 series, highlighting Taiwan’s cultural ties with the international community, National Museum of Taiwan Literature director Chen Ying-fang (陳瑩芳) said. Folklore and literature, among Taiwan’s richest cultural heritages, naturally deserve a central place in the global dialogue, Chen said. Taiwan’s folklore would be immediately apparent at the entrance of the
RSS