Yang Tzu-hsien (楊子賢), president of National Chengchi University (NCCU) student organization the NCCU Wildfire Front, criticized the school administration for asking Student Affairs Office deputy director Tsai Yen-lung (蔡炎龍) — son of White Terror era political prisoner Tsai Kun-lin (蔡焜霖) — to apologize over a 228 Incident flier dispute.
“When I learned that Tsai Yen-lung would be speaking on behalf of the school administration at our news conference on Friday, I tried to stop him from speaking and asked NCCU president Edward Chow (周行一) to talk to us instead, because I know that Tsai Yen-lung is the son of former political prisoner Tsai Kun-lin, who was jailed during the White Terror era,” Yang said on Facebook late on Friday night.
Yang said that Tsai Yen-lung must have suffered when he had to shoulder the responsibility and face the students on behalf of the school administration.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“It would be like defending Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), who persecuted his own father,” Yang added.
The White Terror era refers to suppression of public discussion of the 228 Incident. Tsai Kun-lin was arrested in 1950 at the age of 20 because he took part in a reading group in which a member was involved in “propaganda for communists,” and thus he was considered an accomplice by the then-authoritarian Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime.
After his arrest, Tsai Kun-lin was tortured, sentenced to 10 years in prison, and stayed in a prison camp constructed for political prisoners on Green Island (綠島) until his release in 1960.
The flier dispute began on Feb. 26, when on-campus military education officers and police officers took down fliers posted by NCCU Wildfire Front members at several locations on campus.
The fliers introduced people affected by the 228 Incident to raise student awareness of the history of the Incident.
The actions of the school authorities prompted confrontations with students.
On Friday, more than 100 NCCU students and faculty members protested the school administration, asking it to apologize.
The school administration responded with an apology by Tsai Yen-lung, while saying that officers had mishandled the issue.
However, Yang said that it was highly inappropriate to ask the son of a former political prisoner to speak on behalf of the school.
Yang called on the school administration to send someone more representative to speak to the protesters.
As of press time last night, the NCCU administration had not responded to the NCCU Wildfire Front’s latest call.
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