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Editorial: The skeletons in the KMT's closet

Mourning for late gang boss Chen Chi-li (陳啟禮) triggered much debate in recent weeks about a dark chapter in the nation's history. Back when the country was still under martial law and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was still in power, criminal organizations were carrying out assassinations and other assignments at the request of KMT officials.

Chen was the leader of the Bamboo Union, which, along with the Four Seas, was one of the largest "Mainlander" gangs in Taiwan, so called because members were mostly school dropouts and other troublesome scions of Mainlander families. Many of those families also happened to have close ties to the military. Children who grew up in these communities had a strong sense of unity, which played a large role in the birth of some of the gangs.

Some might find it difficult to understand how these gangs became involved with secret government missions and, for all intents and purposes, turned into an unofficial enforcement arm of the KMT. But given their close ties with the military, many gang members strongly identified with the Greater China ideology and the Republic of China. Their family connections meant that government officials gained easy access to rising gang members.

As international pressure increased during the 1960s and 1970s, the KMT found it increasingly difficult to openly crack down on dissent. It therefore turned to criminal gangs to help maintain order.

Chen, who is mostly known for his role in the assassination of writer Henry Liu (劉宜良), was reportedly asked to carry out the killing because the latter had written a critical biography of then-president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國). It was Wang Hsi-ling (江希苓), the head of the Military Intelligence Bureau, who gave Chen the assignment to silence Liu.

On the eve of Chen's funeral, action movie star Jimmy Wang (王羽) -- well-known for his affiliation with gangs in Taiwan -- confessed to the media that he too had been asked by the government to carry out an assassination. This time, the target had been former Democratic Progressive Party chairman Hsu Hsin-liang (許信良).

Despite the reprehensible nature of these two cases, they are merely the tip of the iceberg. Many other such stories are waiting to be told.

During Chen's funeral, friends and associates praised him for the "sacrifices" he made for the country.

But the victims of these repellent actions were mostly civilians who happened to oppose the policies and practices of the government at the time.

In response to President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) call for an investigation into the murders committed during the Martial Law era, KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) could provide no pithier response than to accuse Chen of playing politics, while promising similar probes himself.

Only through an honest exploration of past mistakes can such mistakes be avoided in the future. Ma's double standard casts doubt on whether he is indeed the right person to revamp the KMT.

And one cannot help wonder whether a party that resorts to gangs and private assassination squads -- or that fails to distance itself from such practices -- can ever regain genuine trust in the community.
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