Taipei, Oct. 13 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian said Monday that referendum legislation is not necessarily a prerequisite for holding referendums on major public policy issues.
Chen made the remarks while meeting with five scholars and experts from the United States, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden who are currently in Taipei to attend an international seminar on direct democracy and popular rights to initiative and referendum.
While referendums have been implemented in Western countries for many years as a form of direct democracy and have even become part of their daily lives, Chen said, referendums largely remain taboo in Taiwan.
For example, Chen told his guests that his administration's plan to hold a referendum either before or on the day of the nation's next presidential election -- March 20, 2004 -- on the fate of the controversial Fourth Nuclear Power Plant and several other public issues has drawn mixed reactions and even triggered heated debate.
To the best of his understanding, Chen said, not all countries that have allowed their people to exercise their right to a referendum have enacted a law to regulate relevant procedures. "Many countries have held referendums on the introduction of new constitutions or constitutional amendments, and one thing is clear that not all of them have legislated a referendum law, " Chen explained.
In his view, Chen said, people's right to vote in a referendum should take precedence over referendum legislation by their elected representatives.
Noting that a nation's power comes from its people, Chen said if the opposition-controlled Legislative Yuan, while insisting on the need of legislating a referendum bill as a prerequisite for holding a referendum, drags its feet on completing such legislation, the people of Taiwan should be allowed to hold a referendum on whether such a bill is needed and what its provisions should be.