Will Someone Take Out DPP Brains and Thoroughly Scrub Them?

Here's the DPP doing good things. Rumors of a proposed new nuke dump in Hualien county, in Sioulin Township north of Hualien town, were making the rounds. As the Taipei Times reported last month, Taipower was busted drilling in Sioulin north of Hualien...

Having learned about the well only after Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) exposed the project, Hsu said that neither the township office nor the county government were informed of what Taipower was doing in Sioulin.

Bi-khim was told by a friend that Taipower was drilling Sioulin. Her friend wanted to be sure they were not secretly locating nuclear waste disposal sites. Sure enough, Bi-khim did the research and found that Taipei was looking to looking to "geological disposal" as the solution to the high-level waste (fuel rod disposal) problem (Taiwan's current storage is all "temporary" haha). Bi-Khim then directly asked Taipower for the location of the research and discovered that the location matched the drilling activities her friend warned her about. Naturally Taipower had not informed the local government of such activities, so she held a press conference to demand transparency and to express opposition to the selection of Sioulin as an ultimate disposal site for nuclear waste. Taipower has since apologized to the local indigenous people and sealed the hole. But you can be sure this won't be the last time they behave this way.

That's what DPP legislators and politicians should be doing. Effective service to constituents on important national issues. Good work, Bi-khim!

UPDATE: Translation error: the push is for RECALL, not impeachment. Still a silly waste of time, but at least its not a criminal accusation.

Instead, this morning brings news that the DPP is considering attempting to impeach (RECALL) Ma Ying-jeou.

The DPP caucus on Friday discussed whether to target Ma and call for his impeachment, but the meeting saw both opposition to and support for the idea, Ker said.

Supporters of impeachment said that despite the legal difficulties involved in the motion, the party should give voice to public -discontent, Ker said, adding that impeachment, whose supporters mostly draw from factions identifying who follow Hsieh and former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), would “leave a mark.”

DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋), who supports the move, said elections and impeachment were opposite sides of a coin, adding that since the public elected Ma as president, they also have the right to impeach him.

It's simple: attempting to impeach (recall) the President without just cause is a blatant subversion of the democratic order. Short of violations of the law, mere impatience or discontent is hardly grounds for impeachment(recall). Further, given the perennial KMT control of the legislature, the DPP should be wary of setting precedents that might call for tit-for-tat action by the pro-China side when a DPP politician becomes President. The public protests scheduled soon are the correct way to indicate displeasure.

This is just a bad idea in every way. The energy spent on it should be spent on other, more possible, and more urgent issues.
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