A longtime observer of local politics pointed out to me another bit of anti-democratic fallout from the Double 50 threshold: ballot secrecy. There won't be any. Consider...1. It is likely that the KMT will instruct its people to stay home.
2. It is also likely that the referendum will not combined with next year's elections.
3. Thus, the only thing voted on will be the Fourth Nuke Plant referendum.
If KMT types are ordered to stay home, this means that the only people going will be, in the very least, people who are voting to stop construction and operation of the plant, and who are more than likely pan-Green voters. In other words, anyone who goes to the polls that day outs themselves as a probable DPP supporter. That will be a consideration in people's minds, and it will inhibit participation in some cases.
Latest TISR poll: 58% want Fourth Nuclear Plant suspended, 52% support keeping the other three plants in operation. The public is wary of Nuke 4 but separates that issue from the issue of nuclear power as a whole, says TISR.
The Atomic Energy agency and the KMT rejected a DPP proposal to amend the law to provide for a local referendum when a nuclear power plant has its fuel rods loaded, TT said. Although it is local lives and health affected by the plant, the government refuses to give them any say in whether they want such a plant in their neighborhood. The article also observed that the plan to remove the nuke waste from Orchid Island by 2016 is "hardly possible" and thus the project has been pushed back to 2021 at the moment. Argh.
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Daily Links:
- Latest Quadrennial Defense Review says time not ripe for cross-strait military confidence building measures.
- Reuters on the NCC's tougher line with the WantWant media monopoly.
- Major security issue in East Asia is climate change
- Photos of North Korea
- The Diplomat on Manny Ramirez in Taiwan
- I've blogged on the Gaoping Great Lakes controversy before. Add land speculation to the list of reasons the government is pushing this dog of a project.
- DGBAS refuses to provide estimates of the economic effects of the fourth nuclear plant stoppage. With good reason, since they depend on the policy decisions of others.
- Commonwealth has a long piece Can Taiwan Survive a Nuclear Free Future? The pro-nuke propaganda we've been hearing for the last twenty years is all here, with the bonus that the article is constructed so that the tech types are all sourced for the pro-nuke commentary while citizen activists are sourced for anti-nuke commentary. LOL.
[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums! Delenda est, baby.
the referendum is a waste of time and money.
ReplyDeletewhen I first heard about it, I knew it was not better than a rigged election in Parador. :) El Presidente Simms wins no matter which way the election goes. You vote yes: he wins. You vote no: he wins. Very democratic. :)
I'm 99% confident that the nuclear power plant construction will go on as planned and become operational no matter what.
Dana
forgot to dd this picture which reminds me of the nuclear referendum in Taiwan. :(
ReplyDeletehttp://oi46.tinypic.com/2q1xl34.jpg
Dana
with manny ramnirez in kaohsiung nw with 3 floor mansion, car, driver, perks and 25K Salary USD oer month, it won't be long before apple daily finds him in bed with some Kaohsiung betel nut chicks and worse. watch the sex scandal hit a home run before the season is over. i sense trouble....not his fault, but trouble...
ReplyDeleteclimate change secutiry issue in Asia? for sure. that is why the world will need polar cities in the next few generations come the climapocalypse. will taiwan be prepared? google "polar city red" by Jim Laughter, a cli fi novel about this very thing. He writes from Tulsa.
ReplyDeleteTaking a quick poll of everyone in my office, most of whom are pan-blue voters, and all but a couple plan to vote in the referendum because they want the plant stopped. Polls repeatedly show that opposition to the construction is bipartisan - a poll released a couple of days ago that surveyed people in Taipei (a pan-blue stronghold) showed over 70% were against Nuke 4. To suggest that anyone who goes to vote is outing themselves as a DPP supporter is ludicrous.
ReplyDeleteThat is my impression as well. But what the KMT's behavior means is that if you vote in the referendum, you are probably voting against the plant. Hence, whether or not you are actually a DPP supporter, you might be taken for one. In Taipei there are plenty of young smart voters who haven't internalized the KMT's terror tactics of twenty years ago, but that is not true of people 45 and up in rural areas where everyone knows everyone.
ReplyDeleteYou'd think that if the majority of Taiwanese don't want to be like China, they'd not always follow their "party" down the garden path, nor feel any threat to turn one's back on them.
ReplyDelete