Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) yesterday said former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Lin I-hsiung’s (林義雄) hunger strike to compel the government to halt construction on the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant has created a “disturbance.”
Jiang said the only way to resolve the issue of whether to stop construction of the plant in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City, was to put it to a vote according to the Referendum Act (公民投票法). He also rejected calls by the DPP and many others to revise the law so that a simple majority vote could decide the issue.
Jiang said that everyone holds Lin in high esteem because of his contributions to the nation’s democratization, and “we hope he will not make his demands in a way that endangers his health.”
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
“Since a referendum in a democracy is a mechanism that reflects public opinion in the most direct way, we will not be swayed by any other action by any group or person on the issue,” Jiang said. “This is why we are worried about Lin’s action.”
“We cannot bear to see him like this,” Jiang added.
Lin began an indefinite hunger strike on Tuesday in protest at the nearly completed plant, saying he was forced into the action because the government has ignored public opinion.
The statement Jiang read to Cabinet members at the weekly meeting yesterday indicated that he would not to concede to either the demand that construction on the plant be halted or that the Referendum Act be amended to address aspects widely perceived as flaws that prevent the public from deciding on the issue.
Under the Referendum Act, at least 50 percent of eligible voters, or about 9 million, need to participate in the vote, with half of the voters casting a “yes” vote for the referendum to be valid.
Strictly speaking, “the referendum threshold is not unusually high,” Jiang said.
The reason the Executive Yuan is opposed to the DPP’s proposal for the legislature to enact a special statute that would allow a referendum on the nuclear power plant to pass through a simple majority is that people would demand that other controversial issues be dealt with in the same way, he said.
People have been demanding that gambling, the cross-strait service trade agreement and the abolition of the death penalty also be put to a referendum, Jiang said.
The premier urged Lin and the DPP to turn to democratic mechanisms to resolve the dispute.
“In a mature, democratic society, people have different views on various issues and sometimes their assertions can be strongly worded. What makes a democracy valuable is that it provides mechanisms to have the disputes resolved,” he said.
Because of the deep disagreements between anti-nuclear activists and the government over the Referendum Act, a suggestion has been made that Constitutional Interpretation No. 520 — which deals with major policy changes — be applied.
The Council of Grand Justices handed down the interpretation in 2001 in response to a decision made the previous year by the then-DPP administration to halt construction of the nuclear power plant. It stipulated that the Executive Yuan should have secured majority support in the legislature rather than making the decision unilaterally because the project’s budget had passed the legislature.
Jiang reiterated the Executive Yuan’s position that the dispute be resolved via a referendum rather than by a vote in the legislature, saying that the former would allow ordinary people to express their views on the issue.
“I don’t believe that Taiwanese would accept a decision on the plant made by the legislature,” Jiang said on Tuesday when asked about the issue by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) at a question-and-answer session.
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
CROSSED A LINE: While entertainers working in China have made pro-China statements before, this time it seriously affected the nation’s security and interests, a source said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) late on Saturday night condemned the comments of Taiwanese entertainers who reposted Chinese statements denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty. The nation’s cross-strait affairs authority issued the statement after several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Michelle Chen (陳妍希), on Friday and Saturday shared on their respective Sina Weibo (微博) accounts a post by state broadcaster China Central Television. The post showed an image of a map of Taiwan along with the five stars of the Chinese flag, and the message: “Taiwan is never a country. It never was and never will be.” The post followed remarks
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
CONSISTENT COMMITMENT: The American Institute in Taiwan director said that the US would expand investment and trade relationships to make both nations more prosperous The US would not abandon its commitment to Taiwan, and would make Taiwan safer, stronger and more prosperous, American Institute in Taiwan Director Raymond Greene said. “The US’ commitment to Taiwan has been consistent over many administrations and over many years, and we will not abandon our commitment to Taiwan, including our opposition to any attempt to use force or coercion to change Taiwan’s status,” he said in an exclusive interview with the Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) on Friday last week, which was published in the Chinese-language newspaper yesterday. The US would double down on its efforts
RSS