Opposition TSU pushes for referendum on ECFA
Taipei, March 14 (CNA) The opposition Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) on Sunday pushed for a referendum on the proposed cross-Taiwan Strait economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA).
The TSU launched a signature-collection drive Sunday in an effort to initiate a referendum on the ECFA, which would ask voters: Do you agree or disagree with the government and China signing an economic cooperation framework agreement?
TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei said at a news conference to launch the campaign that the first threshold for a referendum initiative requires some 86,000 signatures — 0.5 percent of the country’s 17.32 million registered voters in the last presidential election.
The TSU expects that more than 100,000 signatures will be collected, he said.
Huang said that if enough signatures are collected and submitted to government agencies, it would mean that an ECFA referendum has entered the legal process.
By entering the legal process, Huang argued, even if the government signed an ECFA with China, the process would have to be completed before any agreement could take effect.
Huang called on the public to make President Ma Ying-jeou pay the penalty for advocating the ECFA and use their ballots to vote him out in the 2012 presidential election.
“It’s useless simply opposing the cross-strait trade pact. You (the Taiwan public) should give your signatures, the faster the better, to initiate the ECFA referendum,” he stressed.
Koo Kuan-min, a strong advocate of Taiwan independence, said the signing of an ECFA with China would harm millions of people in Taiwan and that the president should be held responsible.
Also speaking at the news conference, John Tkacik, a former research fellow on China policy with U.S. think-tank the Heritage Foundation, said if Taiwan signed the ECFA with China it would be marginalized and its sovereignty and existence rights compromised.
Given the importance of the ECFA, Tkacik said, the people in Taiwan should be given a chance to express their opinions on the matter in a referendum.
“The matter should not be determined by ’secret negotiations’ between one political party and another,” he contended.
Tkacik said he supports the holding of a referendum in Taiwan on ECFA, and he was puzzled why President Ma’s administration is so affraid of such a referendum.
Several heavyweights of the main opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) also spoke at the news conference. The DPP proposed last September to hold a national referendum to decide whether a referendum should be held to approve the ECFA.
The initiative, however, was rejected by the Referendum Screening Committee under the Executive Yuan on grounds that it was based on a hypothetical situation and did not meet the criteria of the Referendum Law.
DPP Secretary-General Su Jia-chyuan said Taiwan’s signing an ECFA with China will lead the Taiwanese people to face high risks to their sovereignty and economy.
“The DPP will throw its full support behind the TSU and will soon mobilize all its ranks in the hope that enough signatures will be collected within one month,” Su vowed.
Former Vice President Annette Lu suggested that the opposition camp push for an ECFA referendum on the one hand and propose new measures to reduce the impact to industries that would be most affected by the pact on the other.
“Let’s strive to make Taiwan a nest for the Taiwanese, rather than a cage,” Lu said.
(By Sophia Yeh and Deborah Kuo)
More Info: http://www.taiwanheadlines.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=182586&CtNode=39
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