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Letter: Removal of statues overdue

A heated debate is raging on about whether the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) drive to remove statues of dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) from the premises of military installations is an abuse of discretion.

Is it really inappropriate to remove such statues?

Dictators throughout history have had a tendency to imprint their personas onto the societies they control. Statues placed near centers of power, such as government and military buildings, attempt to convey the power of the dictator.

Statues placed in public areas and buildings bearing the dictator's name and coins or bills bearing the dictator's image attempt to convey the ubiquitous reach of the dictator's power.

The purpose of such images is to glorify and legitimize the dictator's rule over the public.

Chiang's statues are no exception.

Like Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東), and North Korean president Kim Il-sung, Chiang built a personality cult using omnipresent images of himself to buttress his authoritarian rule.

Many of these statues were erected by the dictator himself and not by an admiring public.

Now that Chiang is gone, along with authoritarian rule, the statues no longer serve their original purpose.

In fact, they seem very out of place in a democratic country, where voters -- not dictators -- wield power.

Some KMT politicians claim that the statues serve the purpose of teaching the population about Chiang's role in the nation's history.

Without a doubt, Chiang played an important role, but the memory of such history is best kept in history books, where words can explain the complexities of Taiwan's history better than any bronze reproduction.

Moreover, Chiang already has a grandiose memorial in Taipei.

In the end, Taiwan's history museums are the most appropriate place for Chiang's statues.

The statues now only serve to symbolize and preserve the KMT's influence over government institutions.

For this reason, the KMT is reluctant to see the statues removed.

As an opposition party, such thinking is understandable, but nevertheless it has no place in a multi-party state, where no party should have a permanent claim over any public institution.

Allowing Chiang's statues to continue standing on public land suggests that any Taiwanese leader could permanently impose his image onto public grounds.

Imagine President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) having statues of himself erected next to every statue of Chiang.

Such a proposition would not only be very unpopular, considering Chen 's poor ratings, it would also contravene the notion that leaders should serve the public and not themselves.

Commissioning a statue of one's image using state funds is as self-serving as helping oneself to the state's coffers.

Portraits of Chen do appear in government buildings as far away as the culture centers run by the Overseas Compatriots Affairs Commission in the US. The beauty of democracy is that such portraits will be taken down as soon as the next president is elected.

The term of Chiang's rule has long expired.

It's time for Chiang's statues to retire from their roles as facilitators of a dictator's personality cult and peacefully live out the rest of their days in museums -- the proper nursing homes for historical artifacts.

Jonathan Hwang
Cambridge, Massachusetts

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