President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday that the pros and cons of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant should be the focus of a public policy debate, when Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) told him that former DPP chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄) could die from his hunger strike in protest against the plant.
During the meeting with Ma at the Presidential Office, Su repeatedly urged Ma to take action to bring the controversy over the nuclear plant in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City, to an end as soon as possible because 73-year-old Lin, was on his fourth day yesterday of an indefinite fast in protest over the plant’s continued construction.
“If the government proceeds with the construction of the plant and lets the controversy drag on, Lin Yi-xiong could die,” Su said at one point.
Ma responded by saying that a debate on public policy “should not involve other elements,” but rather focus than the pros and cons of the issue.
“Otherwise we won’t be able to debate the policy,” he added.
Before the indefinite fast began on Tuesday, Lin said he was forced into the action because authorities have ignored public opinion on the issue.
If not for the authorities disregarding the massive public opposition to the plant, he would not have begun the hunger strike, Lin said.
“Should anything unfortunate happen to me; relatives and friends, please note that it is them [the authorities] killing me. Please continue to pursue the implementation of democracy in Taiwan relentlessly,” Lin said before he began his hunger strike.
Su said to Ma at the meeting: “You are the authorities.”
“Premier Jiang Yi-huah [江宜樺] told me that he was not in a position to make a final decision when I met with him on Monday. As chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT], you use party discipline to keep KMT lawmakers in check, so that they do not express views held by the public in the legislature,” Su said.
“As the leader of the country, you are duty-bound to end the decades-long controversy over the nuclear power plant and to resolve the national crisis,” Su added.
The 90-minute meeting saw heated exchanges of words between Su and Ma when Ma rejected almost all the ideas proposed by Su that he said could end the hunger strike.
Lin is conducting the fast at Gikong Presbyterian Church in Taipei, where his mother and twin daughters were murdered 34 years ago, when the building was their home that, at the time, was under 24-hour police surveillance, the DPP chairman said.
Lin sits where his mother was stabbed and killed near the stairway heading down to where his twin daughters were also stabbed to death, Su said. “You can try to imagine his feelings, and his resolve.”
“President, the power is in your hand. The nation is on the verge of a crisis. What will happen next hinges on your decision,” Su said.
Ma said he will try to find common ground among the different views to solve the issue.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Former Taiwan People’s Party chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) may apply to visit home following the death of his father this morning, the Taipei Detention Center said. Ko’s father, Ko Cheng-fa (柯承發), passed away at 8:40am today at the Hsinchu branch of National Taiwan University Hospital. He was 94 years old. The center said Ko Wen-je was welcome to apply, but declined to say whether it had already received an application. The center also provides psychological counseling to people in detention as needed, it added, also declining to comment on Ko Wen-je’s mental state. Ko Wen-je is being held in detention as he awaits trial
RSS