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Presidential Office slams decision not to meet with Chen

The Presidential Office said yesterday it is regrettable that the pan-blue alliance leaders have refused to meet with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).

Presidential Office spokesman James Huang (黃志芳) made the remarks after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Secretary-General Lin Feng-cheng (林豐正) said that as President Chen has not made a goodwill response to the pan-blue camp's proposal on the formation of a special committee to investigate the March 19 shooting, a meeting between Chen and the alliance's two top leaders would be "meaningless."

Huang said the two pan-blue leaders, KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), took the initiative to meet with Chen to discuss disputes over the March 20 presidential election outcome.

After Chen agreed to meet with them unconditionally, Huang said, the pan-blue alliance brought up a new proposal that legislation be enacted to allow for the formation of an investigative committee under the Legislative Yuan to probe the election-eve assassination attempt on the president, as well as the incident's impact on the presidential election outcome.

In response to the pan-blue alliance's new request, Huang said, Chen directed Presidential Office Secretary-General Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) to solicit opinions from various quarters.

"The Ministry of Justice and the legislative caucus of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) both oppose the proposal on the grounds that forming such a special committee violates the ROC Constitution and existing laws," Huang said

He added that the Cabinet is still studying how to accommodate the pan-blue alliance's request within the legal framework.

Huang said he feels regret that the pan-blue alliance has rejected a Chen-Lien-Soong meeting simply because of the two sides' different views on the necessity of setting up a special investigative committee.

But KMT Secretary-General Lin said an independent inquiry into the election-eve shooting is equally important.

"We want truth, fairness, justice and rule of law," Lin said.

He claimed that the rejection of the pan-blue alliance's proposal for the formation of a special investigative committee to look into the shooting and the activation of a so-called national security mechanism in the wake of the incident indicates that Chen is insincere in offering to meet with Lien and Soong.
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