If accepted by the commission, Hsieh and company have to collect another 866,090 signatures or more to set the agenda on which eligible voters will vote on. Then close to nine million voters have to go to the polls to validate the referendum and a simple majority vote will pass it. When adopted, the administration will have to start renegotiations.

We wish we could wish them success. But we are afraid they won't get the endorsement of enough voters to make the commission call the nation's fifth referendum, even if the initial requirement of one tenth of the signatures may be fulfilled. They must be reminded that none of the four previous referendums were validated for lack of achieving the necessary quorum of half of the electorate.

One thing we can' t quite understand is why organizers of the American beef boycott campaign should try to beat a dead horse. As was pointed out yesterday in a commentary article in Monday's edition of this newspaper, the beef war between Taiwan and the United States is over. The agreement won't be renegotiated, while people are free to boycott risky ground and bone-in beef as well as offal. The Department of Health has promised to ban them if there arises a legitimate fear that the imports may spread any disease. As a matter of fact, even without any boycott, the people of Taiwan, save a few steak lovers, will venture to try American beef and beef products they may consider unsafe for consumption.

Democratic Progressive Party leaders seem to be keeping away from the campaign, perhaps because they know full well the referendum is an exercise in futility just like three of the four previous ones it sponsored. Nevertheless, all three were called to increase the chances of DPP presidential candidates getting elected. The drive that is getting underway may help the opposition party win the year-end elections of 17 mayors and magistrates across the nation or at least so its organizers believe.

If they were so concerned about public health, we believe, they have a much easier and ready-made target: Matsuzaka or Kobe beef. Chic and pricey restaurants advertise choice beef imported from Japan, which is a mad cow disease-infected area like the United States. Japanese beef and beef products are banned but the contrabands are smuggled in. It is quite possible that restaurateurs pass Australian beef for that from Kobe in central Japan and neighboring Matsuzaka. At any rate, it should be a piece of cake to get a couple of hundred people to take to the streets to put an end to this exorbitant gourmet practice.