President Chen Shui-bian's Remarks at the International Conference on the Comparative Studies of Referendum
Office of the President
Republic of China (Taiwan)
November 3, 2007
It is my great pleasure to have been invited to attend this important international conference. The petition drive for the referendum on our country's participation in the United Nations under the name "Taiwan," jointly initiated by the ruling party and civic groups, has garnered two million signatures as of Tuesday, much earlier than we had anticipated. People continue to add their names to the list of signatories. As of yesterday, November 2, we have collected 2,683,144 signatures.
It is almost certain that the initiative on the return of illegally gotten party assets will be held in conjunction with the legislative elections on January 12 next year, and that on our country's participation in the UN using the name "Taiwan" will be voted on during the presidential election on March 22 next year. This will root initiative and referendum in our people's hearts. It will also further consolidate the democratic spirit and the principles of self-determination and "sovereignty lies in the hands of the people."
Holding initiatives and referendums has been possible in Taiwan only for the past three or four years. Our first Referendum Act was passed only in November 2003 and we held our first national referendum on March 20, 2004. Limited as they are, our experiences with initiative and referendum, both positive and negative, can serve as a reference for the global community of democracies. I would like to share some of my observations and thoughts on this issue and ask for comments or suggestions from academics and experts present at this conference.
First, democracy must not be limited. Both in 2004, while promoting the two issues concerned in the "peace referendum," and this year in starting up the petition drive for next year's initiative on our nation's participation in the UN under the name "Taiwan," we were placed under tremendous pressure by various parties, and our work was misconstrued as being aimed at changing the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and as being an unnecessary provocation.
As we have seen, nothing happened after the first national referendum in 2004, and the status quo in the Taiwan Strait was not altered. I foresee that after the UN bid initiative is passed on March 22, our democracy will be further strengthened.
Democracy must not be limited; it must not be compromised or locked in a birdcage. Limited and conditional democracy is not democracy. This is the greatest revelation Taiwan's 23 million people can share with the world as they fight for the universal value and fundamental human right that is the holding of initiatives and referendums.
Second, initiatives and referendums should be held in tandem with elections. Local initiatives and referendums should be held alongside local elections and national ones with national elections. This is a normal practice in democracies and a most reasonable thing to do. If we can hold initiatives and referendums alongside elections and do so efficiently, why should we hold them on separate occasions? The logic is clear enough.
However, we in Taiwan spent nearly four years quarrelling over this non-issue of combining the votes. I am pleased that the ruling and opposition parties finally reached a consensus on this issue. Today, no one would dispute the logic of holding these votes together. This goes to show that truth always speaks for itself. Now, we must persist in doing the right thing and systematize this practice.
Third, a "birdcage referendum" is no referendum at all. According to the initiative and referendum law currently in force, to put a measure before the people for a vote, the number of individuals putting together the initiative must reach 0.5 percent of the total electorate at the time of the latest presidential election, and the number of signatures for the petition drive must be equal to or greater than 5 percent of this same number. Additionally, only when over 50 percent of the electorate vote on the initiative or referendum, and more than half of all valid ballots cast are in favor, is an initiative or referendum then passed.
Looking at the numbers, in Taiwan at least 80,000 people must begin the push for an initiative and 800,000 signatures must be gathered to have it certified. Eight million people, or half of the total eligible voting population, must cast a ballot on an initiative or referendum and half of this number must vote in favor for it to be passed. It is easy to see why our Referendum Act may be the harshest of such laws anywhere in the world.
In 2004, I won the presidential election, having garnered more than 50 percent of the votes. However, although more people voted in favor of the "peace referendum" held in conjunction with that year's presidential election garnered than voted for me, the referendum did not pass because less than 50 percent (only about 45 percent) of the electorate cast ballots on that referendum. This shows that our current system for initiative and referendum has nearly deprived our people of the right to decide the future of their nation. Just as we can hardly regard Hong Kong's "birdcage democracy" as a real democracy, so we cannot really see Taiwan's "birdcage referendum" as genuine referendum the way it is intended to be.
Fourth, referendums are supposed to make up for the insufficiency of representative politics. But the current Referendum Act sets up unreasonable thresholds and only gives the legislature the right to initiate a referendum, except for a defensive referendum. This law not only backtracks on democracy, but also reflects the sordid nature of political wrangling.
Initiative and referendum were instituted to make up for the inadequacy of representative, parliamentary politics. But under our Referendum Act, only the legislature has the right to start a referendum. As we say here in Taiwan, we are "asking a ghost to find the medicine for us," meaning that we are seeking help in the wrong place. This law does the opposite of what it was supposed to do. Some of our opposition parties, enjoying a majority in the legislature, have attempted to block the Taiwan people's right to referendum. Their maneuvers merely highlight how anti-democratic this Referendum Act is and how it works to undermine the people's human rights.
But the harder the challenges, the stronger our will to overcome them. In the face of the numerous unreasonable regulations and high thresholds stipulated by the Referendum Act, we will continue to strive forward in confidence. I believe the referendums on the return of illegally gotten party assets and on Taiwan's UN bid will not only be certified, but will also be passed.
Our current method of practicing initiative and referendum are not normal for a democracy. Many issues that the public and civic groups are concerned about, such as opposing nuclear power or working to close all of our nuclear reactors, may not gather the amount of support seen for the abovementioned issues. But we should not therefore fail to hear their voice, nor should we deprive people of opportunities to discuss these problems.
To truly realize the democratic principle of "sovereignty lies in the hands of the people," we need to completely overhaul the Referendum Act. Only by doing so can we fully restore to our people their rights and leave nothing wanting in Taiwan's democracy that we might have no regrets.
In closing, I would like to thank Taiwan Thinktank once again for organizing this key international conference. I sincerely hope Taiwan can learn more from the valuable experiences of other countries by studying their history with initiative and referendum. I also hope other emerging democracies can draw on and find inspiration in Taiwan's own experiences. I wish today's conference every success and all our distinguished guests and friends health and happiness. Thank you!