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Legislature to tackle trade pact and
referendum
By Shih Hsiu-chuan and Chris Wang / Staff reporters
Taiwan Independence Union
legislators clash with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators to keep a
second extra legislative session from starting in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: CNA
Police yesterday prepare to
remove members of the Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan as they lie down in the
street outside the legislature in Taipei to protest the cross-strait service
trade agreement.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Despite protests inside and outside the
legislature, lawmakers yesterday completed voting on the agenda for an extra
legislative session starting today, which will include the controversial
cross-strait service trade agreement and a proposed referendum on the Fourth
Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Gongliao District (貢寮).
Issues related to the alleged abuse and death of army corporal Hung Chung-chiu
(洪仲丘) earlier this month will also be discussed at the extra session, the second
of this summer’s recess and scheduled to run until Friday next week.
Newly appointed Minister of National Defense Andrew Yang (楊念祖) will be present
at the meeting of the Foreign and National Defense Committee, which will take
place tomorrow at the earliest, to take questions from lawmakers about the case
and the ministry’s plans to correct flaws in the military’s human rights
protection system.
Proposed amendments to the Code of Court Martial Procedure (軍事審判法), the National
Security Act (國家安全法) and the Code of Criminal Procedure (刑事訴訟法), which will
refer cases of alleged abuse in the military to the civilian judiciary system,
are to be reviewed in the extra session.
The amendments were drawn up by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which
said they were was designed to address inadequacies in the court-martial system
to investigate cases of abuse in the military as exposed in Hung’s case.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has also presented a similar amendment to
the Code of Court Martial Procedure to address the problem.
The DPP and the KMT were divided over other items on the agenda, while the
Taiwan Solidarity Union reiterated its opposition to holding an extra
legislative session and boycotted the proceedings.
At the meeting of the legislature’s Procedural Committee, where the proposed
nuclear plant referendum was the third item of the agenda set by the KMT, DPP
Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said that the only reason the KMT initiated an
extra session was to push the proposal through the legislature.
Critics of the referendum have said that the way the question was posed — “Do
you agree that the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant should be
halted and that it not become operational?” — would allow construction of the
plant to continue by default because of the high threshold required by the
Referendum Act (公民投票法).
Several KMT lawmakers, led by Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇), voiced their concern
over the operation of the nuclear power plant, the construction of which has
been plagued by a number of safety issues.
Backed by 36 of the 66 KMT lawmakers, Wu proposed that the party only push for
the referendum’s approval in the extra session if the government promises that
the ongoing safety tests at the plant can be completed in six months and that it
can ensure its safe operation.
Once the proposal clears the legislature, the referendum should be held no
sooner than one month and no later than six months after.
The KMT caucus rejected his proposal. KMT caucus whip Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) said he
hoped that voting on the proposal could be held at the plenary session on Friday
at the earliest.
The cross-strait service trade agreement was expected to be referred by the
plenary session today for preliminary review on Thursday by a joint review
committee after a public hearing is held tomorrow, Lai said.
Outside the legislature, civic groups continued their protests over the service
trade pact with China early yesterday morning and briefly clashed with police
when they entered the legislative compound.
Setting up tents and camping outside the legislature’s front gate, the groups
vowed to monitor the lawmakers during the extra session.
About 100 protesters, led by Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan convener Tsay
Ting-kuei (蔡丁貴), occupied the legislature’s front plaza at about 5:30am.
However, police reinforcements arrived and the protesters were removed by 8am.
Some were injured during the clash with police. They retreated to their camp
after another attempt to enter the legislature at 9:45am failed.
“Our goal is to stop the KMT caucus from placing the agreement directly to a
second reading. We want to make sure that the pact would be screened and voted
on clause-by-clause,” said Lu Chung-chin (呂忠津), president of the Taiwan
Association of University Professors (TAUP). “We are not going away without
achieving this goal.”
The groups, including the TAUP, the Taiwan Nation Alliance, the 908 Taiwan
Republic Campaign, the Taiwan Democracy Watch (TDW) and the Cross-strait
Agreement Watch, formed the “Democratic Front of Anti-opaque service trade
agreement” on Sunday night to coordinate efforts to oppose the pact.
In a statement, the alliance reiterated its opposition to the agreement and the
“fair trade myth,” which it said could harm local job opportunities. It also
demanded the exclusion of Chinese investment in sensitive industries, passage of
a media anti-monopolization law and a reassessment of Taiwan’s trade
liberalization policy.
Taiwan Labor Front secretary-general Son Yu-lien (孫友聯) and the TDW panned
President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) “five noes” and “10 growing strengths” slogan to
promote the trade pact.
The so-called “growing strengths” would only benefit business owners and large
corporations, and harm millions of workers, the TDW said.
Son said Ma’s five noes, which promise that Chinese workers and investors will
not be allowed into Taiwan and that the taxi, Chinese herbal retail and
publishing sectors will not be liberalized, reveal only part of the truth behind
the pact.
“If you read the agreement carefully, the five noes are meaningless because
there are too many loopholes,” he said.
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