Legislative Yuan Secretary-General Lin Hsi-shan (林錫山) said on Thursday that 112 of the legislature’s 113 members had agreed to sign an agreement authorizing an investigation into whether they possessed dual nationality and that these agreements had been sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA).
Lin said that he was unable to disclose who had not signed the agreement when asked by Democratic Progressive Party legislators Twu Shiing-jer (?? and William Lai (賴清德).
The investigation stems from a March 12 report by Next Magazine, which said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Lawmaker Diane Lee (李慶安) possesses dual citizenship.
Lee denied the allegations, arguing that her US citizenship was automatically revoked when she was elected as a Taipei City counselor.
If the allegation is true, Lee would have to return her salary as a Taipei City councilor from 1994 to 1998 and as a legislator since 1998 — estimated at around NT$100 million (US$3.2 million). She would also lose her job as a legislator, forcing a by-election in Taipei City’s sixth district.
The legislature decided in May that it would compile information on all legislative members within one week after the 13th legislation session ended on June 3, and then ask MOFA to assist in investigations into whether any legislators held dual citizenship.
Twu said that it had already been four months since the request was made and that they still had not received any further news.
Lin said that he had already told the one legislator yet to sign to do so and that the legislator in question had promised to sign as soon as possible.
KMT Legislator Alex Fai (費鴻泰) said that signing the agreement was a matter of legislative self-governance and that the secretariat could not demand that legislators sign. It should not represent legislators in answering any questions on the matter, he said.
Fai said that the secretariat should only issue a letter and then let the media monitor what the legislators were doing in regard to the matter.
He said that the whole incident was part of a party political struggle and that the legislature should remain above such squabbles.
Lai, meanwhile, said that according to law, anyone holding dual citizenship was not allowed to be a representative of the people and that Lin was covering up for someone.
Lin responded by saying that he had no need to try to cover anything up, but that he had to respect his duties and could not disclose the name of the legislator.
After repeated questioning by Lai, Lin said that he would ask the legislator in question to sign the agreement quickly, otherwise he would report the matter to Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平).
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