Public Q&A Session Held by Legal Professional Associations, Attended by Hsieh Chang-ting

The public Q&A session for the presidential candidates of both major parties, jointly organized by four legal professional associations including the Taiwan Bar Association, the Judicial Reform Foundation, the Taipei Bar Association, and the Taiwan Law Association, was held at 7:00 PM on February 25, 2008, at the NTU Hospital International Convention Center.

The only attendee present tonight was Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Mr. Hsieh Chang-ting. Meanwhile, the Ma-Siew campaign headquarters faxed the organizers this morning to confirm that Kuomintang presidential candidate Mr. Ma Ying-jeou would be unable to attend tonight's public session.

However, Mr. Ma Ying-jeou will meet and communicate with representatives of the four legal professional associations in the near future. Should there be any arrangements related to public inquiries, the organizers will report to the public as soon as possible.

Tonight's inquiries covered eight issues including constitutional law, human rights, judicial reform, and legal education. Mr. Hsieh Chang-ting answered each of them in detail, and the content of his remarks will be made public in the near future.

Although debates between the two presidential candidates have already been hosted by the media and three televised policy presentation sessions have been organized by the Central Election Commission for this presidential election, the sheer volume of important issues in a presidential election makes it difficult to fully elaborate on them in the aforementioned forums. Given that both candidates originate from the legal profession, they ought to publicly articulate their reform directions concerning legal systems, democracy, and human rights development to the general public and voters nationwide, serving as a reference for citizens when casting their votes and as a basis for supervising future governance.

The organizers hereby thank Mr. Hsieh Chang-ting for agreeing to participate in this Q&A session on short notice and for answering the questions with seriousness and responsibility. Furthermore, we also look forward to Mr. Ma Ying-jeou publicly expressing his views on the aforementioned issues as soon as possible, jointly setting a positive precedent for presidential elections that "focuses on policies rather than rhetoric."