Yesterday's weekly Cabinet meeting became a verbal battlefield for Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Kaohsiung Mayor Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) over the planned referendum.
Claiming to speak on behalf of the public and local government chiefs, Ma questioned the legality and necessity of the referendum proposed by President Chen Shui-bian (
He also proposed that the referendum be separated from the presidential election at the polls.
Hsieh, however, questioned Ma's representation of the people and other elected local leaders and said Ma misconstrued the Referendum Law (
Hsieh branded Ma's criticism of the planned referendum an insult.
Seeking to relieve the tension among his colleagues, Premier Yu Shyi-kun called on government employees and agencies to fulfill their duties and help the Cabinet hold the first national referendum.
Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (
As the Referendum Law clearly mandates that the president has the right to initiate a referendum to safeguard the sovereignty and security of the nation if he deems the nation is in danger, Yu said, it is without a doubt legal for Chen to hold the referendum.
According to Lin, the war of words between Ma and Hsieh and other Cabinet officials started when Ma called on Yu to send Chen's referendum proposal to the Referendum Review Committee, which would then examine its legality, necessity, urgency and appropriateness.
Ma argued that the referendum is not necessary because the nation is not in a state of emergency.
"The nation has been under military threat from China for half a century but has never been in a state of emergency. If Chen can call a `peace referendum' to safeguard national security, do future presidents have to do so every year?" he asked.
Ma also proposed separating the presidential election and the referendum because they are two different kinds of polls bound by two separate pieces of legislation and yielding two different results.
Cabinet officials, including Hsieh, Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) and Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), however, said it is legal for Chen Shui-bian to call the referendum and that the proposal does not require the consent of the Referendum Review Committee.
Chen Ding-nan said it was wrong for Ma to mention the peace referendum and state of emergency in the same breath because the referendum is meant to pre-empt a possible emergency situation, while a state of emergency is declared to deal with an emergency situation.
He said it is inappropriate for the Referendum Review Committee, a subordinate unit of the Cabinet, to review the referendum proposal, adding that the Referendum Law does not require the committee to do so.
Hsieh, meanwhile, criticized Ma's likening of the referendum to an act of theft and his branding of civil servants cooperating to hold the referendum as Chen's accomplices.
"It's clearly an insult and stigmatization of the head of state and civil servants," he said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS