The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday said it plans to organize more than 1,000 anti-nuclear events before June to raise national awareness of the anti-nuclear movement, which would be instrumental in passing a referendum proposed by the government, scheduled to be held later this year.
The events are being organized by DPP members across the country, including by local offices, legislators and local government officials, and they are to be held in various forms, such as outdoor theaters, film screenings, rallies and bicycle rides, DPP spokesperson Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said after the party’s weekly Central Standing Committee meeting.
While the DPP has argued that the government should directly order the suspension of construction of the controversial Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Gongliao District (貢寮) amid strong public opposition to the project, Lin said the party realizes that it will likely have to fight a battle as the government is insisting on resolving the controversy in a national referendum.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
The party hopes to mobilize at least 10,000 people — a minimum of 100 at each event — so that they can become “seed drill masters” and influence more people by spreading the anti-nuclear message.
Opposition to the power plant has been rising, with 73.8 percent of respondents in the DPP’s most recent survey supporting the suspension of construction, while 14.8 percent supported the completion of the project, Lin said, citing a survey conducted by the party’s Poll Center on Tuesday.
The poll collected 1,031 valid samples and has a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
Meanwhile, the New Taipei City Council yesterday passed a resolution demanding that the central government suspend the construction of the power plant, becoming the first local council to make the demand.
The survey and the resolution in New Taipei City, where three nuclear power plants are located, shows that a high degree of consensus has been reached on the issue and that the anti-nuclear movement is now a campaign, DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said.
As the entire country has been engaged in a heated debate over the use of nuclear energy as a source of electricity, the nation should step up its efforts to save energy, which is of equal importance to abandoning nuclear energy, Su said.
The DPP’s support for “green” energy is clear, Su said, adding that the utilization of solar energy and light-emitting diodes, among other things, are attainable goals.
“It is also important to break Taiwan Power Co’s monopoly of electricity production, distribution and sale,” Su said.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
RSS