The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday published a document countering the allegations contained in a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) pamphlet which questioned the legitimacy of President Chen Shui-bian's (
The DPP's document, a four-page handout entitled "Let the evidence speak," said the "Bulletgate" pamphlet on Taiwan's presidential election, prepared by the KMT's National Policy Foundation and sent to every member of the US Congress by "Ambassador" Jason Yuan (袁健生) of the KMT-PFP Representative Office in Washington, is full of unsubstantiated accusations.
The handouts offered a five-point rebuttal to refute the charges contained in the KMT pamphlet, including the investigation of the March 19 shooting incident, polling results from before and after the shooting, rebuttal the KMT's charge of widespread vote fraud, the legitimacy of the referendum, and the purpose of the constitutional re-engineering project initiated by Chen.
As 90 percent of "Bulletgate" talks about the assassination attempt on President Chen and Vice President Annette Lu (
The DPP also said in the handouts that Chen has agreed to start the political investigation in order to "provide the people of Taiwan with more concrete answers that deals [sic] with the political and not the criminal aspect[s] of the incident."
The political investigation will be conducted by the March 19 Special Investigative Committee, headed by Frederick Chien (錢復). The DPP said Chien's heading the committee is expected to be credible as he is the current president of the Control Yuan and "a respected former KMT leader who served in many capacities, including Minister of Foreign Affairs and Taiwan's Representative in Washington."
In addition to Chien's endorsing Chen's sincerity for conducting political investigation of the shooting incident, the DPP said KMT Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
In response to the KMT pamphlet's charges that the March 19 shooting incident had altered voters' behavior and given "sympathy" votes to Chen, the DPP said poll results showed 80.8 percent of voters didn't think they were influenced by the shooting, while "92.4 percent of voters did not show behavioral changes in the election."
The DPP also cited the recount to refute the vote-rigging accusations by the KMT.
"After March 20, the judicial recount proved to be the first example of the largest judicial scale process [sic] in Taiwan's history. This fair and impartial process, open to the media, proved that our election was fair ... The ratio of a separate category of ballots, invalid ones of which there were 300,000 due to stricter regulations for this election, runs 2:1 for Chen over [KMT Chairman] Lien Chan (
The DPP's handout also countered the "Bulletgate" claims that Chen's push for reforming the constitution is intended to create a "Republic of Taiwan," asserting the constitutional reengineering project aims to "deepen Taiwan democratization" and does not touch on national sovereignty, territory and the subject of unification/independence.
The DPP reiterated that Chen is honoring his "five noes" pledge made in 2000.
In conclusion, the party "urges everyone to Believe in Taiwan [sic]" and not be let the unsubstantiated accusations of "Bulletgate" taint Taiwan's international image.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
RSS