Premier Yu Shyi-kun is set to approve today the assignment of 10 Cabinet officials to attend the 10 televised debates on the referendum scheduled to be held alongside the presidential poll on March 20.
The 10 officials include Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (
Today is the deadline for the Cabinet and opposition parties to present their lists of potential debate candidates to the Central Election Commission (CEC), according to debate rules set by the CEC.
The CEC will hold 10 national debates between Feb. 20 and March 19 -- five debates on each of the two questions proposed by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and approved by a Cabinet resolution.
In the referendum, voters will be asked whether the nation should strengthen its defenses in the face of China's missile threat, and whether Taiwan should hold talks with Beijing to establish a peaceful and stable framework for cross-strait interactions.
It is widely believed that the debates might end up being mere opinion presentations as opposition parties have shown little interest in taking part in the debates.
The Cabinet represents the party supporting the two questions of the referendum, the Democratic Progressive Party, while the opposition parties stand against them.
People First Party (PFP) Legislator Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) said the PFP caucus will "definitely not participate in the debate."
"Why do we have to send any representatives to the debate since we're not against any of the two referendum questions?" Lee said.
Another PFP lawmaker, Pang Chien-kuo (
"It' s not only illegal but also unnecessary, inappropriate and not at all urgent," Pang said. "Referendums are held to decide controversial or difficult issues, but the two questions proposed by the president are neither controversial nor difficult."
The referendum is unnecessary because the legislature has passed a resolution on the two questions, Pang added.
Pang said that the opposition parties will let the Cabinet go solo in the debates to highlight the absurdity of the referendum.
"We'd like the public to see how the Chen administration is abusing national resources by holding the 10 debates and how ridiculous it is that it insists on pushing ahead the referendum by itself," he said. "Basically, it's just a bunch of boring people doing an extremely boring thing."
KMT Legislator Huang Teh-fu (
Since there is no opposing side, the Cabinet or the president should debate the referendum questions on their own, he said.
The CEC could "simply run an ad in newspapers to look for a party interested in playing the opposing side," Huang said.
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