The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday condemned the passage of the pan-blue camp's version of a statue to regulate the investigative committee on the March 19 shooting, saying the committee has seriously overridden the judicial power and infringed on the Constitution.
On the final day of the extra legislative sitting yesterday, the legislature passed the pan-blue's proposal for a special investigative committee -- which would use an independent prosecutor system -- to probe the March 19 assassination attempt on President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮). The DPP's proposal to ask the Control Yuan, the government's watchdog agency to direct the committee's operations was snuffed out.
PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
DPP officials said yesterday that the Cabinet will propose renewed discussions in a bid to reverse the legislation. If it can not be vetoed, the DPP legislative caucus will file for a constitutional interpretation of the new law. If either action fails to stop the operations of the committee, the DPP will not rule out the possibility of withdrawing from the investigation panel to oppose the pan-blue camp's committee legislation.
Presidential Office Secretary General Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said yesterday the pan-blue camp used its legislative majority to force the passage of the bill, which infringed the independence of the judicial power. The statue also has been widely criticized by private judicial-reform groups and academics, especially a clause which states that representation on the committee must reflect the number of legislators each party has in the Legislative Yuan.
"The statue is basically a product of the pan-blues' legislative violence," Su said yesterday in the party headquarters after a closed-door meeting of the Central Executive Committee.
Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑), deputy director of DPP's Policy Research and Coordinating Committee said the pan-blue camp's statue -- which gives committee members the power to investigate, discern evidence and prosecute without the permission from the judiciary -- is unacceptable.
"It is ridiculous that committee members can use their political judgment to decide who is guilty and then mete out charges against them, totally disregarding the Code of Criminal Procedure (刑事訴訟法). We have seen many prosecutors voice protests on the Web site of the Ministry of Justice," Liang said.
"These prosecutors said they would refuse to cooperate if asked by the committee," he said.
The DPP yesterday also released a public opinion poll regarding the pan-blue's shooting committee. The poll found that 57 percent of the public thought the committee should be free of political interference; 15.1 percent of the interviewees supported the pan-blue's committee legislation; and 27.9 percent had no opinion on the issue.
In other developments, the CEC members also agreed yesterday on a proposal that would require a direct election by all party members in choosing a new party chairman. The proposal is a revision to a 2002 party regulation which requires the president serve concurrently as the party chairman. The revision will be submitted to the party congress for final approval on Sept. 26. The 2002 party regulation which says the party can choose up to three vice chairmen was also canceled as well.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
RSS