TAIPEI: A Taiwanese referendum on whether to restart a nuclear power plant failed on Saturday after the number of votes in favor fell short of the legally required threshold.
Maanshan Nuclear Power Plant closed in May, ending atomic energy in Taiwan and increasing concerns about the island’s almost total reliance on fossil fuel imports to power its homes, factories and chip industry.
President Lai Ching-te’s Democratic Progressive Party had opposed reopening Maanshan unless there were safety guarantees and a solution for waste disposal.

But the main opposition Kuomintang party supported restarting it, arguing that continued nuclear power supply is needed for energy security.
The referendum failed to pass with around 4.3 million people voting “yes” and 1.5 million voting “no.”
For it to succeed, at least 5 million “yes” votes were required and they had to outnumber “no” votes.
Lai told reporters after the vote that he respected the result and understood “the society’s expectations for diverse energy options.”
“The greatest consensus of Taiwan’s energy debate ... is safety. Nuclear safety is a scientific issue, and one that cannot be resolved through a single vote.”
A survey published by the Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation this month showed support for the referendum was high, with 66.4 percent of respondents in favor of restarting Maanshan if authorities confirm there are no safety concerns.
Critics, however, said the vote was a waste of time because the question of whether to reopen the plant was conditional on approval of “the competent authority.”
Taiwanese referendum decisions are valid for two years. If most voters had supported reopening the plant, the government could have ignored the result if safety inspections took longer than that.
“Whether it is passed or not, the decisions will go to the government. So there will be no difference at all,” said Chen Fang-yu, assistant professor of political science at Soochow University in Taipei.
At its peak in the 1980s, nuclear power made up more than 50 percent of Taiwan’s energy generation, with three plants operating six reactors across the island.
But safety concerns have grown in the past four decades following the Three Mile Island accident, dumping of nuclear waste on indigenous land on Taiwan’s Orchid Island and the Fukushima disaster.
Two plants stopped operating between 2018 and 2023 after their operating permits expired. Maanshan stopped for the same reason.

JAKARTA/MANILA: Asian activists are preparing to set sail with the Global Sumud Flotilla, an international fleet from 44 countries aiming to reach Gaza by sea to break Israel’s blockade of food and medical aid. 

They have banded together under the Sumud Nusantara initiative, a coalition of activists from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Maldives, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan, to join the global flotilla movement that will begin launching convoys from Aug. 31. 

Sumud Nusantara is part of the GSF, a coordinated, nonviolent fleet comprising mostly small vessels carrying humanitarian aid, which will first leave Spanish ports for the Gaza strip, followed by more convoys from Tunisia and other countries in early September.

The international coalition is set to become the largest coordinated civilian maritime mission ever undertaken to Gaza. 

“This movement comes at a very crucial time, as we know how things are in Gaza with the lack of food entering the strip that they are not only suffering from the impacts of war but also from starvation,” Indonesian journalist Nurhadis told Arab News ahead of his trip. 

“Israel is using starvation as a weapon to wipe out Palestinians in Gaza. This is why we continue to state that what Israel is doing is genocide.” 

Since October 2023, Israel has killed more than 62,000 Palestinians and injured over 157,000 more. As Tel Aviv continued to systematically obstruct food and aid from entering the enclave, a UN-backed global hunger monitor — the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification — declared famine in Gaza on Friday, estimating that more than 514,000 people are suffering from it. 

Nurhadis is part of a group of activists from across Indonesia joining the GSF, which aims to “break Israel’s illegal blockade and draw attention to international complicity in the face of the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people.” 

“We continue to try through this Global Sumud Flotilla action, hoping that the entire world, whether it’s governments or the people and other members of society, will pressure Israel to open its blockade in Palestine,” he said. 

“This is just beyond the threshold of humanity. Israel is not treating Palestinians in Gaza as human beings and the world must not keep silent. This is what we are trying to highlight with this global convoy.” 

The GSF is a people-powered movement that aims to help end the genocide in Gaza, said Rifa Berliana Arifin, Indonesia country director for the Sumud Nusantara initiative and executive committee member of Jakarta-based Aqsa Working Group.  

“Indonesia is participating because this is a huge movement. A movement that aspires to resolve and end the blockade through non-traditional means. We’ve seen how ineffective diplomatic, political approaches have been, because the genocide in Gaza has yet to end. This people-power movement is aimed at putting an end to that,” Arifin told Arab News. 

“This is a non-violent mission … Even though they are headed to Gaza, they are boarding boats that have no weapons … They are simply bringing themselves … for the world to see.” 

As the Sumud Nusantara initiative is led by Malaysia, activists are gathering this weekend in Kuala Lumpur, where a ceremonial send-off for the regional convoy is scheduled to take place on Sunday, led by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. 

One of them is Philippine activist Drieza Lininding, leader of civil society group Moro Consensus Group, who is hoping that the Global Sumud Flotilla will inspire others in the Catholic-majority nation to show their support for Palestine. 

“We are appealing to all our Filipino brothers and sisters, Muslims or Christians, to support the Palestinian cause because this issue is not only about religion, but also about humanity. Gaza has now become the moral compass of the world,” he told Arab News. 

“Everybody is seeing the genocide and the starvation happening in Gaza, and you don’t need to be a Muslim to side with the Palestinians. It is very clear: if you want to be on the right side of history, support all programs and activities to free Palestine … It is very important that as Filipinos we show our solidarity.”