Going beyond transitional justice

`Advocates of transitional justice argue that if we give up seeking the truth or forget our history, the sacrifices made by our predecessors become meaningless and similar tragedies will likely be repeated.'

From a humanitarian perspective, authoritarian and totalitarian dictatorships -- and their impact on the population -- cannot be rationalized on any grounds, regardless of whether these systems are adopted with a view to pursuing economic development or achieving social stability.

A country that has undergone a democratic transformation must find ways to implement transitional justice.

Advocates transitional justice argue that if we give up seeking the truth or forget our history, the sacrifices made by our predecessors become meaningless and similar tragedies will likely be repeated. To comfort victims and reconcile a divided society, we must give transitional justice its just value.

However, while society eulogizes the loftiness of transitional justice, we must avoid allowing this pursuit to turn into an empty ideology.

We must not forget that transitional justice is but one of many social values. It certainly is a very important value, but by no means is it the only one, let alone the most important one.

Political and historian Isaiah Berlin was right when he argued that liberty, equality, justice, happiness, safety and public order are all values coveted by societies. He also said, however, that not all good things are compatible with each other and that all human ideals are not necessarily compatible with one another.

Transitional is a subcategory of justice and does not include distributive or intergenerational justice. More importantly, even if transitional justice were equal to justice, it still cannot replace the ideas of liberty, equality, happiness and stability.

When transitional justice is served, we still have to face problems such as the widening gap between rich and poor, deteriorating ecosystems and the education divide.

Different have to be addressed using different values, but different values can clash with one another. Failure to understand this means that we still do not understand what a free and democratic society is all about.

When people say that "there is no peace or future without transitional justice," we must keep in mind that what they mean isn't that transitional justice stands at the pinnacle of our system of values but rather that it should be given its due weight.

Transitional is built upon a set of arguments that are closely related to each other, which may give the impression that they form a cohesive system. But this hypothesis does not stand scrutiny. In principle, transitional justice says that our top priority should be to pursue the truth and seek out the prime culprit behind an act of atrocity.

If the perpetrators of relatively less serious crimes feel ashamed of their past wrongdoings and are willing to offer a sincere apology to their victims, those victims may be willing to forgive them, thereby bringing reconciliation and harmony to society.

However, many academics have argued that this was not the experience of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, set up under the 1995 Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act to investigate crimes committed during the apartheid era. Many victims who learned the truth could not forgive the perpetrators who admitted to committing violence, nor could they accept the nation's decision to pardon their crimes.

South Africa's deteriorating law and order in recent years is partly attributable to the country's economic slump and rising unemployment rates but is also the result of a lack of genuine reconciliation between black and white communities.

In Latin American countries, victims of authoritarian governments still regard dictators as heinous wrongdoers and will not find true solace until those have been severely punished.

However, authoritarian governments also improved the lives of some brackets of society, who may block criticism of the old government. Since truth did not bring about reconciliation, societies were plunged into turmoil.

These developments do not necessarily mean that transitional justice has failed. Many countries have only just begun to implement this type of justice, which makes it difficult to ascertain the long-term repercussions of these measures.

In theory, however, the discovery of truth can feasibly have a positive impact on social cohesion and, moreover, humans have an instinct for seeking out the truth and no one wants historical facts to be cast into oblivion.

One Berlin's favorite epigrams was from Immanuel Kant: "Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made." People who are attempting to address the issue of transitional justice should contemplate Kant's somewhat pessimistic but wise remark.

Most people are aware that the implementation of transitional justice in Taiwan is being manipulated by politicians. The anniversaries of the 228 Incident in recent years have not only included memorial ceremonies but also incorporated political events such as the 228 Hand-in-Hand Rally.

A few years ago, when infighting was rife within the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), certain pro-independence diehards chided President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) for refusing to reward the organizers of those events, given the political contributions they had made to his campaign. Many of those who believed in the impartiality of these memorial services must have felt betrayed.

More the transitional justice discourse implies that governments that come to power following a democratic transformation must be uncorrupt and just.

This is the only way it can gain enough legitimacy to launch the reform of old systems and hold authoritarian regimes to account.

However, a few years into the transfer of power from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to the DPP, the national leader has shown his inability to resist the temptations of power -- synonymous with corruption and incompetence -- by shamelessly defending his wrongdoings and saying that accusations only have been launched against him because transitional justice is yet to be served.

Such abuse of transitional justice is worrying.

Jiang Yi-huah is the professor in the department of political science at National Taiwan University.

Translated by Daniel Cheng