On the 70th anniversary of the 228 Incident on Tuesday, in a solemn ceremony held in front of a monument commemorating the massacre, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) reiterated her administration’s commitment to transitional justice and touted the measure as a necessary step in ridding all political parties of the nation’s past authoritarian baggage.
As expected, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was quick to condemn Tsai’s determination to push for transitional justice, denouncing it as a blatant attempt by its political rival to eliminate the KMT and the Republic of China it brought with it when the authoritarian regime was forced to retreat to Taiwan in 1949 after losing the Chinese Civil War.
The KMT fails to realize that the nation’s dark authoritarian past is as much political baggage to itself as it is to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
When people see the KMT squander money from illegitimate sources, or that the giant statue of dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) still sits comfortably in a large shrine known as the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei, they do not just think about past KMT repression and Chiang’s atrocities.
They are also reminded of the DPP’s failure, if not purposeful reluctance, to address past wrongs when it held the presidency between 2000 and 2008.
Of course, without a legislative majority, the DPP had its hands tied, but now the party occupies 60 percent of the legislative seats, causing people’s expectations of a complete transition to soar. However, their patience will soon run out.
How well the government carries out its transitional justice policies, how it handles fierce opposition from the KMT and its supporters, and how it assuages the historical wounds of the 228 Incident and the ensuing White Terror era could be the decisive factors on the public’s final assessment of one of the DPP’s most oft-touted campaign promises.
The Tsai administration’s transitional justice policies involve three main parts: dealing with authoritarian remnants, restoring historic truth and furthering democracy.
Their execution mostly depends on the pending compilation of a national investigative report and the passage of a bill to promote transitional justice.
The writing of the report is to go hand-in-hand with the National Archives Administration’s three-year investigation into political victims and prisoners of conscience, which began on Wednesday. It is to dedicate an entire section to the 228 Incident and is expected to resolve the unsettled issue of responsibility attribution, something past governmental reports have tried to shun or downplay.
While the plans look good on paper, whether it turns out to be satisfactory — accurately naming the perpetrators without political bias and discreetly determining their responsibility — remains to be seen.
The government should bear in mind that public expectations will build in the next three years. High expectations usually lead to disappointment.
Since the report’s planned publication date is just ahead of the 2020 presidential race, Tsai’s re-election chances could hinge on how people assess it.
As for the transitional justice bill, its purpose is to essentially lay the legal foundations for the establishment of an independent agency under the Executive Yuan that is in charge of declassifying political files; removing authoritarian symbols and preserving sites associated with injustice; restoring past judicial injustice, discovering the truth and promoting reconciliation; and dealing with illegitimate party assets.
None of these tasks are easy and each could have disastrous political ramifications. It is unimaginable that they could be achieved by an agency consisting of just nine members.
Transitional justice is essential for any democratic nation that has transitioned from authoritarian rule, but it is imperative that the DPP be better prepared so that it does not become the party’s own baggage.
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