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Protests fail to stop removal of inscription

Construction workers remove the Chinese characters that include the name of dictator Chiang Kai-shek at the entry arch to the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall in Taipei yesterday. PHOTO: WALLY SANTANA, AP

Emotions continued to run high at the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall yesterday as protesters and supporters traded angry volleys while work on changing the inscription on the hall's entry arch proceeded. The original four Chinese characters, dazhong zhizheng (大中至正) were removed from the white arch yesterday afternoon after six-and-a-half hours.

Supporters applauded, while protesters booed and jeered outside a barricade of barbed wires when the final character, zheng (正), was peeled off at 5:26pm.

The installation of the new inscription, "Liberty Square" (自由廣場), is expected to be completed this afternoon, a ranking official from the Ministry of Education said yesterday.

The Taipei City Government opposes plans to alter the inscription and has claimed jurisdiction over the hall. But the central government argues that decisions made by the Cabinet-level Council of Cultural Affairs trumps any made on a municipal-level regarding the site.

Two women are pictured engaged in a skirmish outside the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall in Taipei yesterday. PHOTO: LU CHUN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES

The city government has refused to back down.

"All workers and police officers who assist in destroying the inscription face a minimum of five years' imprisonment for vandalizing a historic site. Stop your work at once. You are being used by your superior," Yeh Ching-yuan (葉慶元), commissioner of the city government's Law and Regulation Committee, said repeatedly through a portable speaker while watching the crane ascend up to the arch.

Lee Yong-ping (李永萍), director of the city's Department of Cultural Affairs, slapped a NT$1 million (US$31,000) fine on the Democracy Hall for tampering with the plaque and the inscription without the city government's approval.

"All workers and police officers who assist in destroying the inscription face a minimum of five years' imprisonment for vandalizing a historic site. Stop your work at once. You are being used by your superior."

Yeh Ching-yuan, a Taipei City Government official

Aside from changing the inscription on the entry arch, the ministry unveiled last night a new plaque bearing the characters minzhu jinianguan (民主紀念館), or Democracy Hall, that is expected be installed on the blue-roofed mausoleum in the next few days, the ministry's secretary-general, Chuang Kuo-jung (莊國榮), said.

The original plaque, which bear the characters "Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall" (中正紀念堂) will be taken down after being separated into 15 smaller pieces.

Chuang said if it suited the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), he was willing to personally foot the bill to have another set of the same inscription made and hung up at KMT headquarters or at the home of the its presidential hopeful, Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).

The project's chief technician, Tseng Yi-ping (曾一平), from Do and Find Engineering Consultants Co, said that workers would sand down the surface and paint over the residue before installing the new characters today.

But Tseng could not confirm when the plaque would be installed because the city government's Department of Labor has refused to issue a permit to certify the safety of the construction site.

Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng (杜正勝) likened the hall to an "umbilical cord" that connects the pan-blue supporters to dictator Chiang Kai-shek's regime. He said that although the government does not demand the cord be severed, it urges the supporters and the city government to strive for full democracy.

The removal of the inscription yesterday was marked by intermittent clashes, but these were mostly verbal.

More than 600 police officers were dispatched to maintain order.

Supporters called protesters "idiotic leftover garbage of an authoritarian regime" while the protesters screamed at pan-green devotees to "go home and eat themselves."

One pan-green supporter surnamed Chang, 56, a former construction worker, said he was amply geared for a physical altercation if necessary.

"I had a few beers this morning. I am definitely gutsy enough to punch those damn China-lovers in the face," he said.

Meanwhile, pan-blue supporters hollered anti-government slogans and threatened to shoot down the construction workers.

"If you don't get down, you will fall to your death and your house will be burnt to rubble because you are committing a despicable act," a male protester shouted.

Premier Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) yesterday called on the public to be calm about the plaque alteration, which he said was something that needed to be done to achieve transitional justice.

Meanwhile, National Taiwan University (NTU) Hospital staff said yesterday that ETTV cameraman Wang Jui-chang (王瑞璋) remained in critical condition as he continued from bleeding in the lungs and other organs.

Wang was run over by a pickup truck on Thursday while filming a dispute between members of the Taiwan Independence Union and the truck driver.

"We found through X-rays and ultrasound that the hemorrhaging [in Wang's body] has actually increased," said I.E. Han (韓吟宜), a doctor at NTU Hospital. "We decided to drain the fluid in his lungs so he can breathe more easily."

Han said that Wang has fractures in the pelvis, the clavicle on his right shoulder and his left ankle. Wang may have problems walking and sitting later, Han said.

Government Information Office Minister Shieh Jhy-wey (謝志偉) yesterday restated the government's position against violence and said the government would defend reporters' rights.

Additional reporting by Shih Hsiu-chuan,

Shelley Shan and CNA
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