Taipei, April 13 (CNA) Former president of the Republic of Latvia Vaira Vike-Freiberga shared her observations on various political topics from her unique point of view as a psychologist Tuesday before concluding a week-long visit to Taiwan.
All countries are advised to use referendums cautiously because in some cases people tend to be misinformed, she told reporters, adding that her training in psychology gave her an advantage as "a good listener" in comparison to other politicians.
Vike-Freiberga, 72, visited Taiwan amid heated local debate on whether to hold a referendum on a proposed Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) between Taiwan and China aimed at lowering tariffs and relaxing trade regulations.
Citing the example of a failed ratification of the European Constitution in France in 2005, Vike-Freiberga said French voters did not vote for the Constitution not because they did not support the treaty but because they did not like the government led by then-President Jacques Chirac.
The failed first referendum on the Lisbon Treaty in Ireland in 2008, she added, was a classical case of misinformation because under Irish law the government is not allowed to promote its policy. The opposition gave the electorate false information and successfully prevented the passage of the referendum.
"This is the danger in referendum... It's very easy to mislead them (the voters) . Psychologically this potential of misinformation of the issue of referendum makes referendum, I think, an insecure instrument for finding out the true position of the people, " she said.
Vike-Freiberga was elected president of Latvia in 1999. In 2003, she was re-elected for a second term. During her tenure, she played a crucial role in leading Latvia to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the EU.
Vike-Freiberga, who has previously been nominated to run for the position of Secretary-General of the United Nations and for President of the European Council, declined to comment any further on Taiwan's political relations and economic initiative with China.
However, she said she saw nothing but a promising economic future for Taiwan because the country has always been at the forefront of innovation, development of high technology, and re-orienting itself to an economy of high value-added products, which she described as "the only way of survival in a modern world of free trade." In a free trade world, "you cannot protect yourself the way you did before, " but at the other end of the spectrum Taiwan is able to gain the access to the huge China market and create a huge opportunity, she said.
In terms of the sensitive agriculture issue, she acknowledged that it has been a complicated issue and "one of the thorniest problems in the world, which everyone has to face." "Any country has to think about having enough food to feed its people in case something happens. To some extent, each country has to produce some food, " she said, adding that this is why farmers in the EU are so heavily subsidized. (By Chris Wang) ENDITEM/J