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DPP calls on KMT to back truth panel
NO COMPARISON:The KMT said the shooting of Chen Shui-bian
and Annette Lu in 2004 was completely different from that of Sean Lien, as the
latter had ‘real’ bullets
By Vincent Y. Chao / Staff Reporter
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday called on Chinese Nationalist
Party (KMT) lawmakers to set aside partisan politics and agree to establish a
special investigative committee to probe last month’s election-eve shooting.
Speaking one day after the opposition party raised the possibility of contesting
the election results, DPP lawmakers said the government owed the public a clear
and consistent explanation on the attack on KMT Central Committee member Sean
Lien (連勝文).
“We should all attempt to responsibly uncover the truth around the incident,”
DPP Legislator Pan Men-an (潘孟安) said. “What we don’t want to see is this
[committee] blocked by KMT lawmakers.”
DPP lawmakers are expected to propose the establishment of the investigative
committee at the legislature’s procedural committee meeting this morning,
although it is unlikely to receive support from the majority of KMT lawmakers.
If passed, however, the proposal would create a bipartisan legislative
committee. DPP lawmakers said they want the committee to be named the “Nov. 26
Shooting Truth Investigation Special Committee.”
“Our aim is to return to Taiwanese, the families of the victims and supporters
of [our] party a sense of justice, regardless of what the final motive is found
to be,” Pan said.
Sean Lien, a son of former vice president Lien Chan (連戰), survived after being
shot through the face at an election campaign rally for a local KMT candidate on
Nov. 26. The shooting led to an outpouring of sympathy votes for KMT candidates
the day after, DPP lawmakers said after the incident.
Pan and several other DPP lawmakers said that Sean Lien’s shooting should be
investigated in the same manner as the far-reaching investigation, which was
supported by KMT lawmakers, into the shooting of then-president Chen Shui-bian
(陳水扁) and then-vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) on March 19, 2004. The prove
involved US forensic expert Henry Lee (李昌鈺).
Opposition party lawmakers have attempted to play up the connection between Sean
Lien’s shooting and the shooting in 2004, saying they were both attempts to
undermine Taiwan’s democracy. As part of the announcement yesterday, DPP
lawmakers said they would also support the investigation committee taking a
second look into the 2004 incident.
“If the KMT still has any lingering questions over Chen’s shooting, perhaps we
should hold both the investigations together,” DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yee (李俊毅)
said.
At a press conference yesterday, KMT lawmakers denied any similarity between the
two shootings, suggesting that the former president’s incident was staged, while
Lien’s shooting included evidence of “real” bullets.
“The Nov. 26 and March 19 [incidents] are monumentally different,” KMT
Legislator Kuo Su-chun (郭素春) said. “One of them had real bullets, while the
other one used fake ones. One victim was seriously hurt and was fighting for his
life ... the other one was [grazed].”
KMT lawmakers also suggested during the press conference that they would not
support the creation of the investigative panel, despite KMT caucus Deputy
-Secretary-General Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) saying that the KMT also had an
interest in uncovering the truth.
“We want to find out the truth even more than the [DPP] does,” Hsieh said.
“[But] the DPP only wants to find out the truth to see if there is any chance
the election can be overturned.”
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