Thu, Apr 13, 2006 page8

• Editorial: Enough of this 319 bullshit

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  The opposition parties are living in the past.

  How else can one explain the resurrection of the 319 Shooting Truth Investigation Special Committee on Tuesday? It is more than two years since the presidential election, and the pan-blues have put Taiwan right back where it started.

  No one has ever presented a shred of credible evidence to prove that the shooting was a conspiracy. This is such a vital fact that it warrants repetition: No one has presented evidence of a conspiracy.

  Not one document. Not one fiber of fabric. Not a single hair. Not one strand of DNA. No film footage. No still photographs. No weapons. No testimony from inside sources. No tape recordings. No fingerprints. No eyewitnesses. Nothing.

  Nothing at all to indicate that the elected president of this democratic state, flawed as it may be, was involved in a conspiracy that would have required dozens, if not hundreds, of participants to execute properly -- with no certainty of what effect it would have on the election once it had been carried out.

  That's another point that should be raised twice to emphasize its importance: If President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) had himself shot, how could he have known that the electorate would react in his favor?

  If he wanted to make sure he stayed in power, why didn't he just declare martial law? Ban the main opposition leaders from running? Stuff the ballot boxes? He could have done hundreds of things that would have guaranteed the result, while giving the appearance of a democratic contest.

  But according to the conspiracy-peddlers, he didn't. He had someone give him a flesh wound with a homemade pistol, then covered it up and waited a day for the poll results.

  It is insulting to one's intelligence to be asked to believe that.

  Furthermore, evidence that the shooting was carried out by a lone nutcase is legion. The police collected bullet fragments. Shell casings. Video footage. Eyewitness testimony. Forensic analysis by a host of experts. The police spent months painstakingly gathering evidence and tracking down leads. They matched clothing. They positively identified the shooter. They found the man who sold him a homemade gun. They gathered testimony from people who knew the shooter. Even his family said he had done it -- until deciding a year later to change their story, with the help of a prominent pan-blue figure.

  And what about the simple, inescapable logic of self-interest? Is there no one, inside or outside of the president's circle of trust, who would have something to gain by exposing a conspiracy that would rock the very foundations of this country's political system?

  Are the thousands of broadcast and print journalists in on the plot as well? Are they all Chen supporters? Clearly not. So were they all bought off?

  Why did the pan-blue camp's first unconstitutional committee not find any conclusive proof of their claim? They submitted a voluminous report that was a cold fish even among pan-blue supporters. It had charts. It had diagrams. It had speculation. It had lots of pages. But it had no evidence.

  So was the committee in on the conspiracy too?

  The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is again showing its disregard for the rule of law, merely because it can't live with the reality that it isn't in power.

  KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) should bow his head in shame. He says he stands for change; he says he stands for democracy. But he knows all of this is a farce. So why is he allowing his party to use the same tired tricks it used when former chairman Lien Chan (連戰) tried to destabilize, if not cripple, this democracy after the election?

  The public is sick of sham conspiracy theories.

  It's time for the pan-blues to put up or shut up.
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