The removal of statues of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) from school campuses in Tainan has elicited the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) ire, but Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智) yesterday proposed removing all statues of Chiang nationwide and replacing the former president’s image on coins and the NT$200 bill.
The Tainan City Government took action on Saturday after Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) called for the removal of all statues of Chiang from school campuses in the city.
Following KMT Tainan city councilors’ denunciation yesterday of the removals, the KMT legislative caucus also took Lai to task for “taking down the statues sneakily at night during the weekend,” urging Lai to “stop manufacturing hatred.”
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
KMT deputy caucus whip Liao Kuo-tung (廖國棟) said schools are supposed to be autonomous on this issue and there are different perspectives from which historical figures are assessed.
“History is history; education is education,” Liao said, adding that the educational environment should not be marred by historical controversy.
KMT Legislator Chen Shu-hui (陳淑慧) called Lai’s order to remove the statues without consulting school principals, teachers or parents an “authoritarian” move.
In stark contrast to the KMT, Yao, who also held a press conference yesterday, called for an expansion of Lai’s policy to a complete sweeping away of statues of Chiang nationwide.
Yao showed copies of court verdicts on which Chiang had added his own comments and altered the sentences to executions.
It would be shameful for Taiwan if it did not remove the statues and currency commemorating a dictator, Yao said.
He voiced his support for Lai’s removal of the statues, calling it the beginning of a move to end hatred and proposed moving the largest statue of Chiang in Taipei, the one at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, to the Cihu Mausoleum in Taoyuan’s Dasi District (大溪區).
“It’s not like we are throwing it into the ocean; those who wish to pay tribute to him can still visit Cihu,” Yao said, adding that the memorial hall without the statue could be transformed into a branch of the National Palace Museum to help solve the museum’s overcrowding problem.
Yao also proposed having the NT$1, NT$5 and NT$10 coins and the NT$200 bill, which all have an image of Chiang on them, recalled and replaced.
Chiang’s image on the money should be replaced by that of people who would help society better understand Taiwan’s democratic history, such as Chen Cheng-po (陳澄波), a renowned Taiwanese painter executed by the KMT regime in 1947, or Deng Nan-jung (鄭南榕), who in 1989 set himself ablaze to protest against the regime’s repression of freedom of speech, Yao said.
Chuang Chu Yu-nu (莊朱玉女), a woman who sold meals for NT$10 for decades to help low-income families, who passed away earlier this month, would also be an option, Yao said.
A Department of Issuing official at the central bank, who declined to be named, said yesterday that the bank has no comment on the issue.
Additional reporting by Amy Su
Taiwanese Olympic badminton men’s doubles gold medalist Wang Chi-lin (王齊麟) and his new partner, Chiu Hsiang-chieh (邱相榤), clinched the men’s doubles title at the Yonex Taipei Open yesterday, becoming the second Taiwanese team to win a title in the tournament. Ranked 19th in the world, the Taiwanese duo defeated Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju of South Korea 21-18, 21-15 in a pulsating 43-minute final to clinch their first doubles title after teaming up last year. Wang, the men’s doubles gold medalist at the 2020 and 2024 Olympics, partnered with Chiu in August last year after the retirement of his teammate Lee Yang
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
RSS