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Revising the Referendum Act will give
people a say
By Hawang Shiow-duan 黃秀端
Monday, Sep 20, 2010, Page 8
A lot of Taiwanese think referendums equal populism. They are
unaware that direct democracy is gradually becoming an unstoppable trend in
democratic countries. This trend arises from the principle that sovereignty
rests with the people, and, to a certain extent, from public discontent with
party politics.
Although political parties are an indispensable element of modern democratic
politics, parties sometimes overlook the public’s wishes as they get caught up
in struggles to defend their own interests. Thanks to the higher level of
education and availability of better information in democratic states, the
public can receive such information through multiple channels without worrying
about being manipulated by one or two politicians. Certainly, referendums cannot
replace parliamentary democracy, but they are one way of making up for its
inadequacies.
The Referendum Act (公民投票法) of 2003 has been criticized for introducing a highly
convoluted and complicated process and a very high support threshold that is
almost unobtainable unless a referendum proposal is supported by a party. Even
if a referendum is accepted, a minimum of half of all eligible voters must vote
for it to be valid. As a result, none of the national referendums organized over
the past five years were passed.
With this design, the eligible voters who choose not to vote in a referendum are
often seen as opposing the referendum. This is also the reason why the Cabinet’s
Referendum Review Committee rejected the Taiwan Solidarity Union’s (TSU) request
to hold a referendum on the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA),
saying that the proposed referendum question and the reason for the proposal
were contradictory.
Theoretically, there could be hundreds or thousands of reasons why the public
would support or oppose the proposal. The TSU’s reason for the proposal is just
one of those, and as such, cannot represent the thoughts of the other almost 1
million signatories.
Given these circumstances, I have several suggestions as to how the Referendum
Act can be improved.
First, abolish the requirement that half of all eligible voters must
participate.
Second, simplify the application process. For any issue proposed by 100 people,
collection of signatures can begin after obtaining the approval of the Central
Election Commission’s.
Third, allow the collection of signatures online. I suggest that the election
commission set up a signature area on its official Web site and put all approved
proposals online for the public to sign freely. To avoid repetition, the
commission could check the Citizen Digital Certificate or ID card numbers of
signers. It can also set up a message board next to the area to allow those with
different views to express their opinions to further promote discussion and
exchange of opinions.
Fourth, lower the required number of signatures in support of a proposal. In
Switzerland, a proposal is accepted once 50,000 signatures are collected. Since
Taiwan’s population is larger, maybe the threshold should be set at 200,000
signatures. A very high threshold only serves to intensify the opposition
between political parties. If every member of the public can express their
opinion in this way, the process will involve more information and discussion
and party confrontation is likely to decline.
Fifth, abolish the review committee. Since referendums are an expression of the
principle that sovereignty rests with the people, the process should be as
simple as possible and the government should never seek to restrict the rights
of the public.
Hawang Shiow-duan is a professor at Soochow University’s
Department of Political Science.
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