The Executive Yuan is to immediately establish an ad hoc commission for the promotion of transitional justice to disclose historical data and remove authoritarian symbols, Premier William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday.
The Legislative Yuan on Tuesday approved the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice (促進轉型正義條例) and Lai yesterday instructed Minister Without Portfolio Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) to establish such a committee by nominating a list of members, drafting the organizational regulations and planning a budget.
“The establishment has to be completed in the shortest time possible to meet public expectations for transitional justice and reconciliation,” Lai said.
Photo: CNA
The passage of the act is a milestone in the nation’s democracy and has pivotal importance in the nation’s history, he said.
The committee would be responsible for making political archives available, removing authoritarian symbols, redressing judicial injustice and investigating political persecution, Lai said.
Asked if roads and schools named after former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) would be renamed, and coins and notes bearing his portraits recalled following the act’s passage, Lai said the committee would have sole discretion.
“It will be fully authorized to make investigations, file reports and make [decisions],” Lai said.
Before the committee is established, it is premature to comment on the treatment of symbols of Chiang, he said.
Executive Yuan spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said the establishment of the committee would not be as swift as was the case with the Ill-gotten Party Assets Settlement Committee, because its members did not need to be approved by the Legislative Yuan while transitional justice committee nominees do.
Meanwhile, the Presidential Office said it is illogical to debate whether roads and schools should be renamed until the truth about the nation’s history is understood.
Following the passage of the act, some people have deliberately misinterpreted it and spread misinformation that the government is planning to redesign the nation’s currency, and rename roads and schools, the office said.
Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) said there are multiple ways to remove authoritarian symbols, including simple removal and renaming as well as preservation and reconstruction.
The act requires the government to investigate improper criminal proceedings and human rights violations during the authoritarian era and to reinstate the rights and reputations of victims of political persecution, Huang said.
That work would be undertaken by the transitional justice committee, Huang said.
“There should be a list of priorities. Before the investigation of historical truth is completed, before the responsibilities for improper criminal proceedings and human rights violations are ascertained, how can any measures [such as renaming schools] be put forward?” he said.
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Yilan at 11:05pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was located at sea, about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km, CWA data showed There were no immediate reports of damage. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Yilan County area on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. It measured 4 in other parts of eastern, northern and central Taiwan as well as Tainan, and 3 in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, and 2 in Lienchiang and Penghu counties and 1
A car bomb killed a senior Russian general in southern Moscow yesterday morning, the latest high-profile army figure to be blown up in a blast that came just hours after Russian and Ukrainian delegates held separate talks in Miami on a plan to end the war. Kyiv has not commented on the incident, but Russian investigators said they were probing whether the blast was “linked” to “Ukrainian special forces.” The attack was similar to other assassinations of generals and pro-war figures that have either been claimed, or are widely believed to have been orchestrated, by Ukraine. Russian Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, 56, head
‘POLITICAL GAME’: DPP lawmakers said the motion would not meet the legislative threshold needed, and accused the KMT and the TPP of trivializing the Constitution The Legislative Yuan yesterday approved a motion to initiate impeachment proceedings against President William Lai (賴清德), saying he had undermined Taiwan’s constitutional order and democracy. The motion was approved 61-50 by lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who together hold a legislative majority. Under the motion, a roll call vote for impeachment would be held on May 19 next year, after various hearings are held and Lai is given the chance to defend himself. The move came after Lai on Monday last week did not promulgate an amendment passed by the legislature that
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE: Beijing would likely intensify public opinion warfare in next year’s local elections to prevent Lai from getting re-elected, the ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’ said Internal documents from a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company indicated that China has been using the technology to intervene in foreign elections, including propaganda targeting Taiwan’s local elections next year and presidential elections in 2028, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday. The Institute of National Security of Vanderbilt University obtained nearly 400 pages of documents from GoLaxy, a company with ties to the Chinese government, and found evidence that it had apparently deployed sophisticated, AI-driven propaganda campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan to shape public opinion, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. GoLaxy provides insights, situation analysis and public opinion-shaping technology by conducting network surveillance
RSS