News of the Week (April 12-18, 2007)

News of the Week

April 12-18,2007

1.President Chen Shui-bian said on April 11th that he agreed with the Nuke-4 Plebiscite Initiative Association’s proposal that the threshold for proposing a plebiscite be lowered from 80,000 to 100 people. However, a DPP party-administration policy coordinating meeting concluded that the proposed threshold would be too low and another round of discussions should be held before the DPP caucus introducing a bill before April 23rd. The Central Election Committee spokesman Teng Tien-you said, however, “It would be a mistake for the threshold to be too low because it would allow too many plebiscite proposals.”

2.DPP Secretary-General Lin Chia-lung said on April 16th that the DPP would push for the coming presidential and legislative elections and the two plebiscites—one on whether to return KMT assets to the state and one on whether the ROC should join the UN under the name of Taiwan—to be held on the same day”. Lin also proposed a “two-stage plebiscite” to push for a “new Constitution”. In the first stage, he explained, a “procedural referendum” would be held in the hope it would give the next President the authority to set up a “New Constitution Commission”. This commission would be authorized to propose a draft “New Constitution”, which would then be referred to the people in a “substantive plebiscite”.

3.In response to President Chen’s call for the threshold for proposing a plebiscite to be lowered, the KMT legislative caucus lashes out at the DPP, saying that the ruling party’s only purpose is to win the elections by any means possible and that it is being extremely childish and playing at politics. The KMT caucus called on the DPP to let the Central Election Organic Act bill pass in the Legislative Yuan before conducting any plebiscites.

4.Former KMT chairman Ma Ying-jeou said during a meeting with farmers in Hsin chu that if the KMT were to regain power, it would not do away with the current NT$ 5,000 subsidy for senior farmers and fishermen, but increase it to NT$ 6,000. In such a case, together with the implementation of the citizen annuity system in the future, farmers and fishermen above 65 years of age would be able to receive at least NT$ 8,000 in subsidies per year under the KMT administration.

Attachment : none