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Police block protesters from
Legislative Yuan
By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
Police try to stop anti-nuclear
protesters from breaking down a gate to the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday
as a review of the proposed referendum on the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant was
being held on the legislative floor.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
A police officer puts his elbow
in the face of an anti-nuclear protester outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei
yesterday.
Photo: CNA
Anti-nuclear protesters clash
with police after breaking down railings erected outside the Legislative Yuan in
Taipei as a review on the proposed referendum on the construction of the Fourth
Nuclear Power Plant was being held inside the building.
Photo: CNA
Several rounds of clashes erupted between
protesters and the police as demonstrators tried both to push through and pull
down the gate and fences of the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday to get into
the building to observe the voting on a proposed referendum on the Fourth
Nuclear Power Plant.
More than 100 people from civic groups, brought together by the Taiwan
Environmental Protection Union (TEPU), joined the protest against nuclear power
and the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) referendum proposal on the fate of the
plant in Gongliao (貢寮), New Taipei City (新北市).
The protesters began by staging a sit-in in the morning to listen as
representatives took turns voicing their concerns, criticizing the “bird-cage”
Referendum Act (公民投票法), calling for a end to the use of nuclear power in Taiwan
and urging lawmakers not to go against public opinion.
“With the current referendum threshold requiring at least 50 percent of eligible
voters to cast votes [for a referendum to be valid], the proposed question would
be very difficult to approve, according to previous national referendum
outcomes,” TEPU founding chairperson Shih Hsin-min (施信民) said.
The public is concerned about the construction quality at the plant, given the
many corruption cases linked to the project that have already been uncovered,
Shih said.
“Stopping the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant is the consensus of the public, so the
government should not spend so many resources to hold a referendum,” he said.
“A responsible government should provide clear explanations about its
construction projects to the public and guarantee public safety,” said Shih Ying
(史英), chairman of the Humanistic Education Foundation.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has asked KMT legislators to pass the proposed
referendum during the second extraordinary legislative session — as if nuclear
safety and the referendum are two separate issues, which shows just how
disconnected the government is, Shih Ying said.
“It is like the principal of an elementary school who knows that the lunches
prepared for the students have gone bad, but insists that the children should
vote on whether they want to eat them,” said Liu Chin-hsin (劉進興), a former
professor at National Taiwan University of Science and Technology.
Near noon, Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan convener Tsay Ting-kuei (蔡丁貴) led
protesters to one of the gates of the Legislative Yuan’s compound and told
police officers lined up on the other side that the protesters “would ask three
times to enter the Legislative Yuan as owners of the nation” to monitor the
voting session.
If their request was refused, they would use stronger measures to try to enter
the building, Tsay said.
After being told that it was against legislative rules to allow them in, the
protesters began pushing at the gates.
While the pushing and shoving was taking place on one side of the compound, a
senior-high school student surnamed Yu (游) was able to climb over the fence on
the other side.
Police officers took him to the compound’s parking lot, where he sat quietly on
the ground holding a sign that read “Stop construction of the Fourth Nuclear
Power Plant.”
The demonstrators took a break before tackling the gates again in the afternoon,
led by Tsai and 908 Taiwan Republic Campaign convener Peter Wang (王獻極). The
attempt to get through the gates became more heated, as efforts were made to
pull down the fences with ropes while water balloons, animal feces and paper
leaflets were thrown over the fences.
After several short clashes, the police allowed Tsai and Wang through the gates
to take up a spot next to Yu in the parking lot. However, no protester made it
into the building.
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