A Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) official yesterday lashed out against the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) over KMT remarks saying that the DPP has done nothing toward the cause of a “nuclear-free homeland,” adding that a KMT boycott is at fault.
“The idea of creating a ‘nuclear-free homeland’ has been the nation’s long-term objective since it was written into the Basic Environment Act [環境基本法] in 2002, and the Executive Yuan at the time proposed a law specifically aimed at pushing for it in 2003. However, the proposed bill has been repeatedly boycotted since then,” DPP Policy Committee deputy executive director Shih Keh-he (施克和) said. “As for why the KMT is opposed to it, I think the question should be directed to KMT members.”
Although the DPP lost the 2008 presidential election, it has never stopped pushing for the goal, Shih added.
“DPP Chairperson Tsai Ying-wen (蔡英文) actually proposed the idea of making Taiwan nuclear-free by 2025 in 2011, and in the past three years, it has been because of joint efforts from non-governmental groups and elected DPP officials that the government finally agreed to suspend construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District [貢寮],” Shih said.
Unfortunately, the KMT never stopped its efforts to boycott legislative proposals for a “nuclear-free homeland,” even after the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan, shocked the world in 2011, Shih added.
“By telling the lie that the DPP did nothing toward a ‘nuclear-free homeland’ during the eight years that it was in power in an age when information can be easily fact-checked, the KMT is only exposing its own shortcomings,” he said, adding that the KMT should give up its “resistance against the majority of the public” and join the campaign to end the use of nuclear energy in Taiwan.
Shih spoke in response to criticism from the KMT caucus yesterday after Tsai and members of the DPP’s Central Executive Committee vowed on Wednesday to make Taiwan a nuclear-free nation by 2025.
Besides making the promise, Tsai also asked all KMT members to help mobilize for antinuclear rallies to take place in Taipei, Kaohsiung, Tainan and Taitung tomorrow.
KMT legislators criticized the DPP for not doing anything toward its nuclear-free objective when it was in power from 2000 to 2008, while accusing Tsai’s mobilization of merely being campaign fodder for next year’s presidential and legislative elections.
In a separate setting, New Taipei City Mayor and KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said that he supports the idea, but added that the DPP should take action instead of just chanting slogans.
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