Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Former vice president Annette Lu says no reason for referendum reform delay

Taipei Times

Lin I-hsiung, second right, front row, yesterday sits with other members of the People Rule Foundation outside the Democratic Progressive Party’s headquarters in Taipei to urge the government to lower the threshold for proposing and initiating a referendum.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times

The Legislative Yuan should not wait until the end of this year to pass revisions to the Referendum Act (公民投票法), former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) said yesterday, as the People Rule Foundation concluded a protest fast outside the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) headquarters in Taipei.

The KMT’s failing relevancy

Taipei Times Editorial

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) has been championing a proposal to end Taiwan’s “hostile relationship” with China by signing a peace agreement; she might even conclude that espionage and mutual — or to be more exact, one-sided — blocking would be unnecessary with such an agreement, but the people she needs to persuade are more likely to be Republic of China (ROC) loyalists than ordinary Taiwanese.

Referendum rights and the pressure from China

Peter Wang 王獻極

A referendum might express the will of the public or it might decide policies. In both cases, it manifests the will of those who exercise sovereignty.

If Taiwanese do not have full referendum rights, they cannot be the true masters of the nation and they cannot be truly free — they are just the slaves of the nation’s rulers.

WHO usurped by China

Taipei Times Editorial

A joint research team from Chang Gung University and Taipei Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in August last year discovered the pathogenesis of anti-interferon-gamma autoantibodies; the National Health Research Institutes and Taichung Veterans General Hospital last year offered insight into the cause of type 2 diabetes, finding inflamed T cells that might cause diabetes and obesity; Academia Sinica researchers last year made a breakthrough that could help treat the mutation of a gene responsible for 90 percent of Rett syndrome cases; and another group of Academia Sinica researchers last year discovered a curcumin derivative that might help prevent Alzheimer’s disease. These are just some examples of Taiwan’s world-class medical achievements, breakthroughs and international contributions.

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