Cabinet agencies would not oppose an investigation conducted by a new legislative committee into the March 19 assassination attempt on President Chen Shui-bian (
"As long as the committee is legal and constitutional, I am not averse to the establishment of a new one," Hsieh said.
"I have asked Cabinet agencies to cooperate with the new committee and they no longer need to oppose investigation efforts," he said.
Hsieh made the remark yesterday morning after attending the inauguration ceremony of the Legislative Alliance for Science and Technology (立法院科技立法聯盟) in the legislative compound.
The alliance is made up of 20 lawmakers from across party lines. It is headed by People First Party (PFP) Lawmaker Lee Yung-ping (李永萍) and co-headed by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Lawmaker Julian Kuo (郭正亮) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers Lee Jih-chu (李紀珠) and John Wu (吳志揚).
Hsieh's remarks yesterday echoed those made by the president on Saturday, when he said that he supports a second truth investigation committee if it is established in conformity with the Constitution.
Chen also said that both KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
The first attempt at establishing such a committee was dismissed when the last legislature ended in January. While the KMT and PFP have been trying to establish a second one, the DPP and Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) insist that the March 19 Shooting Truth Investigation Special Committee Statute (三一九槍擊事件真相調查特別委員會條例) be amended before a new committee is brought into being.
The Council of Grand Justices also ruled that some clauses of the statute were unconstitutional and that they should be amended. Former premier Yu Shyi-kun therefore requested that Cabinet officials refuse to cooperate with the questionable committee.
As the amended statute has been pushed through to legislative committee for review, the DPP and KMT legislative caucuses yesterday said that they plan to ask Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
Commenting on Chen's proposal that Lien or Soong would make good candidates for the position as head of the committee, KMT Lawmaker Tseng Yung-chuan (
"If President Chen really meant what he says about looking forward to finding the truth about the shooting, he should have asked the DPP caucus not to boycott the establishment of the new committee any longer," Tseng said.
Painting the president's proposal as "inappropriate," PFP caucus whip Chen Chih-bin (
DPP caucus whip Lai Ching-teh (賴清德), however, said that it would make perfect sense for Lien or Soong to head the committee because they are the ones who demand a probe into the incident and refuse to recognize the legitimacy of Chen's presidency.
Meanwhile, Hsieh yesterday still remained tight-lipped about whether he will participate in the demonstration scheduled for March 26. The demonstration is organized by the DPP to protest against China's "Anti-Secession" Law.
Hsieh said that he has already made his decision, but will not announce it until today.
Hsieh yesterday also complimented the march on Saturday organized by the pan-blue alliance, which was peaceful. The march was held to demand the truth about last year's March 19 assassination attempt.
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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