The attempt by pan-blue legislators to establish a committee for reviewing documents about the "national security mechanism" implemented after the assassination attempt on President Chen and pass a draft Statute to Establish the March 19 Shooting Incident Truth Investigation Special Committee failed yesterday after strong opposition from the pan-green camp.
The pan-blue camp asked to allow the two proposals to undergo a second-reading in the legislative sitting yesterday, but the pan-green camp motioned to have the proposals enter inter-party negotiations. It is now likely that the two proposals will undergo the four-month negotiations.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
According to legislative regulations, once a caucus demands a bill undergo inter-party negotiations, the bill will not be able to get its second and third readings before the caucuses reach an agreement. Only after four months of negotiation without a consensus can a caucus motion to vote on the bill.
The statute regulates that the special committee should be formed jointly by the Legislative Yuan, the Control Yuan, and the state public prosecutor-general. All of them have the right to investigate, and they can mete out administrative punishment to anyone who circumvents, delays, or refuses investigation. The committee can also order prosecutors to investigate.
Regarding the committee for reviewing documents on the national security mechanism, the pan-blue camp proposed that the committee should be formed with members from each caucus proportionally before April 12, and the committee should offer a report within one month's time.
Besides trying to use the legislation to form the committees, the pan-blue camp has also proposed holding a referendum to decide on the establishment of the committees, but the pan-green camp rejected the possibility yesterday.
"The referendum is against the Constitution and as such it is meaningless," Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus Director-General Tsai Huang-liang (
"The truth cannot be decided by referendum, but rather found out by the impartial justice system. Plus, the pan-blue camp is proposing to hold a referendum not to uncover the truth, but rather to serve as a means for the legislative election campaign," DPP caucus Secretary-General Lee Chun-yee (
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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