Protesters
give thumbs down to Cabinet proposal
By Loa Iok-sin /
Staff reporter
Student activists occupying the legislative chamber yesterday
rejected the Cabinet’s proposal for legislation to monitor cross-strait
agreements, calling it an empty, insincere proposal aimed at deceiving the
public.
“The Cabinet proposal is rather superficial, especially when [the
premier] rejects our demand to apply the law to the review of the cross-strait
service trade agreement,” student leader Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷) told a news conference at the
Legislative Yuan.
“The proposal is empty, insincere and deceptive, and ignores the
demands raised by the 500,000 people who took part in Sunday’s demonstration
[in Taipei
None of the protesters’ five major demands were included: the
public’s participation in the reviews of cross-strait pacts, making all
information public, stipulating the government’s responsibilities, human rights
protection and granting the legislature the actual power to review cross-strait
agreements.
“We hereby declare that the Executive Yuan has flunked class,
because it failed to respond positively to the public’s demands,” Chen said.
Academia Sinica associate research law fellow Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said that he agreed with Chen.
“In the proposal for the legislation to monitor cross-strait
agreements raised by non-governmental organizations [NGOs], the legislature is
given full power to review any cross-strait agreements, and the government
would be required to report to the legislature on plans to sign an agreement
with China
These mechanisms are absent from the Cabinet’s version, he said.
Human rights protection is an important element for many countries
when signing free-trade agreements (FTA) with other nations, he said.
“In many FTAs, there are clauses concerning human rights protection,
such as stipulating a suspension of the agreement when human rights are
violated, or providing a way to appeal for those who feel that their rights
have been compromised by the agreement,” Huang said.
“Unfortunately, such a mechanism does not exist in the Cabinet’s
proposal,” he said.
Huang said the NGOs’ draft proposal also stipulates that if the
government negotiates an agreement with China that involves a change in the
political “status quo,” the agreement would have to be voted on by the public
in a referendum before being ratified, but that was not mentioned in the
Cabinet’s version either.
Attorney Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said that according to the NGOs’ draft proposal, the government
not only has to report to the legislature before negotiating an agreement with
China, but it also has to hold public hearings in advance.
The Cabinet’s proposal that only national security agencies would
need to review a cross-strait pact before it was signed was not enough, the
attorney said.
“One of the controversies concerning the cross-strait service trade
pact is that the government only held public hearings after the pact was
signed,” Lai said.
Structure of the Lead
Who-protesters (students)
Who-protesters (students)
What- rejected the Cabinet’s proposal for
legislation to monitor cross-strait agreements
Where- legislative chamber
When-2014/04/03
(三)
Why-The Cabinet proposal is rather
superficial.
-The proposal is empty.
How- by occupying
the legislative chamber
Keywords
1.the legislative chamber：立法院
2.insincere：言不由衷
3.conference：會議
4.deceptive：騙人的
5.mechanism：機制
6.proposal：提案
7.stipulate：規定
8.referendum：公投
9.negotiate：談判
10.compromise：妥協
