Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus whip Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) said the party would sue Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng (杜正勝) for negligence today over the renaming of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.
The hall was officially renamed the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall (
Tseng said given that the legislature had not approved the Executive Yuan's request to suspend the law regulating the management of the monument, the name change was illegal.
PHOTO: LIU HSIN-DE, TAIPEI TIMES
The Cabinet had requested the legislature to abolish the Organic Law of the CKS Memorial Hall Management (
According to the regulations, Cabinet administrative orders are sent to the legislature for reference, rather than approval.
The administrative regulations contradict the organic statute, Tseng said, adding that the Law Governing Legislators' Exercise of Power (
The Ministry of Education is the government organization in charge of the hall.
KMT Legislator Hsu Shao-ping (
"The government totally disregarded procedural justice before the legislature had a chance to review the law and the administrative order," she said.
When approached by the press for comment yesterday, Tu refused to respond to opposition lawmakers' demands, saying that everything had been handled legally.
The Taipei City Government Department of Cultural Affairs said yesterday it had officially requested that the CKS Memorial Hall Management Office remove the banners covering the name signs on the hall, citing the Cultural Heritage Protection Law (文化資產保護法).
When asked to comment on Saturday's ceremony, department director Lee Yong-ping (李永萍) told the press that the Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall did not exist because legislation approving the name change was incomplete.
Putting up banners to "publicize something that does not exist" may be illegal, she said, adding that the management office may face a fine of between NT$100,000 and NT$500,000 under the Cultural Heritage Protection Law.
She was referring to Saturday's unveiling ceremony, during which two huge banners bearing wild lilies as the symbol of the democracy hall were used to cover two sides of the hall building.
Lee added that the management office also closed entrances to the building, where a gigantic statue of dictator Chiang Kai-shek (
In a bid to prevent the CKS Hall from being altered, in March the Taipei City Government classified the 27-year-old memorial hall and its surrounding walls as a temporary historical site.
The Cultural Heritage Protection Law stipulates that a temporary historical site cannot be altered or damaged in any way.
Lee said the city government had been inadvertently caught up in the controversy surrounding the name change, adding that its handling of matters relating to the hall had been consistent.
Any attempt to remove Chiang's statue from the hall would also be illegal because the committee entrusted by the department to review the cultural value of the hall considers the statue part of the building's structure, she added.
At a separate setting yesterday, President Chen Shui-bian (
"As for the disposal of the statue, we can think about that. I heard that the doors of the hall can be locked up," Chen said.
Chen accuses Chiang and this KMT regime of serious violations of human rights and of oppressing democracy advocates during their five-decade-long strongarm rule of Taiwan -- which ended when Chen was elected president in 2000.
Public Construction Commission Chairman Wu Tze-cheng (
"We will decide whether to demolish the outer walls, remove the statue of Chiang Kai-shek and remove the name board in the main gateway by the end of this year," he said.
Dozens of police guarded the new name plate at the memorial hall yesterday as local and foreign tourists snapped pictures in light rain.
A veteran soldier from China clashed with police after he was caught spitting at the hall's new name plate.
At a forum hosted by the Ketagalan Institute in Taipei yesterday, DPP Secretary-General Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said that changing the name of the hall was a matter of right or wrong and a sign that the country had fully adopted democratization.
"If we want to walk down the road of democracy, we must face pain and accept the changes that come with it," he said.
Additional reporting by Ko Shu-ling and DPA
Also see story:
Why all the fuss about CKS Hall?
CHAOS: Iranians took to the streets playing celebratory music after reports of Khamenei’s death on Saturday, while mourners also gathered in Tehran yesterday Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the US, throwing the future of the Islamic republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability. Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency announced the 86-year-old’s death early yesterday. US President Donald Trump said it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country. The announcements came after a joint US and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites. Trump said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue through the week or as long
TRUST: The KMT said it respected the US’ timing and considerations, and hoped it would continue to honor its commitments to helping Taiwan bolster its defenses and deterrence US President Donald Trump is delaying a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan to ensure his visit to Beijing is successful, a New York Times report said. The weapons sales package has stalled in the US Department of State, the report said, citing US officials it did not identify. The White House has told agencies not to push forward ahead of Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), it said. The two last month held a phone call to discuss trade and geopolitical flashpoints ahead of the summit. Xi raised the Taiwan issue and urged the US to handle arms sales to
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that it had confirmed on Saturday night with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil suppliers that shipments are proceeding as scheduled and that domestic supplies remain unaffected. The CPC yesterday announced the gasoline and diesel prices will rise by NT$0.2 and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, starting Monday, citing Middle East tensions and blizzards in the eastern United States. CPC also iterated it has been reducing the proportion of crude oil imports from the Middle East and diversifying its supply sources in the past few years in response to geopolitical risks, expanding
Pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai’s (黎智英) fraud conviction and prison sentence were yesterday overturned by a Hong Kong court, in a surprise legal decision that comes soon after Lai was jailed for 20 years on a separate national security charge. Judges Jeremy Poon (潘兆初), Anthea Pang (彭寶琴) and Derek Pang (彭偉昌) said in the judgement that they allowed the appeal from Lai, and another defendant in the case, to proceed, as a lower court judge had “erred.” “The Court of Appeal gave them leave to appeal against their conviction, allowed their appeals, quashed the convictions and set aside the sentences,” the judges
RSS