At a separate setting, DPP spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said the KMT government wanted to wipe away history in the name of promoting culture.
The KMT government has never honestly reviewed its martial law-era past or dealt with issues relating to transitional justice, Cheng said.
He said the DPP would cooperate with human rights groups and social movement groups to protest the decision.
Lu said from this incident, one can tell that Taiwan’s history is full of bloodthirsty, power-hungry human rights suppressors who are too cowardly to face the truth. Those who fought for Taiwan’s liberalization would never agree to such changes.
“We must ask Ma if he is unwilling to face the past, how would he be able to steer Taiwan’s future?” she said.
Former Examination Yuan president Yao Chia-wen (姚嘉文) said the human rights park is a symbol of the past worth remembering.
The public should preserve the place so people will never forget the terror Taiwan went through under the reign of the Taiwan Garrison Command, Yao said.
“It is ridiculous that the Ma government wants to delete this part of history. We will protest to the end,” Yao added.
The idea of turning the detention center into a park was proposed by the former vice president and others who were imprisoned for political reasons during the Martial Law era.
Lu was sentenced to 12 years in prison on charges of sedition after she delivered a speech on human rights in Kaohsiung in 1979.
While there is no official death toll for political killings during the Martial Law era, Lu had said that 29,000 political cases were recorded, 140,000 people jailed and at least 4,000 people killed.
Wang Shou-lai (王壽來), a CCA official in charge of the project, told a news conference yesterday afternoon that the council did not have any political motivation behind turning the human rights memorial park into a cultural park.
“If so many people are not happy about the name, we would not rule out holding a public hearing on it,” he said.
Executive Yuan Spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) said yesterday that the plan to transform the Jingmei park was not finalized, but instead was a proposal under discussion within a CCA department.
The CCA would take all concerns into account before it finalizes its transform plan, Su said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JENNY W. HSU AND SHIH HSIU-CHUAN
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