Huang Huang-hsiung (黃煌雄) yesterday resigned as chairman of the Transitional Justice Commission after an uproar last month concerning an alleged plan by his former deputy to target a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) mayoral candidate.
Huang said in a statement that he took the reins in May with the belief that transitional justice would provide legitimacy and legality for past democratic movements, transcending party politics.
“However, the Sept. 12 incident ruined the big picture and overshadowed the commission soon after its establishment with the stigma of being another Eastern Depot,” Huang said, alluding to the pan-blue camp’s comparison of the commission to a Ming Dynasty secret police and spy agency.
Photo: CNA
On Sept. 12, Chinese-language media reported a partial recording of an unofficial commission meeting on Aug. 24 called by then-commission deputy chairman Chang Tien-chin (張天欽), in which Chang allegedly discussed a plan to target KMT New Taipei City mayoral candidate Hou You-yi (侯友宜) using a lustration law.
Hou headed the Taipei Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division in its failed attempt to arrest democracy advocate Deng Nan-jung (鄭南榕) at the office of his Freedom Era Weekly magazine in 1989. Deng refused to be taken alive and self-immolated in the office.
The incident raised doubts about the Executive Yuan-affiliated body’s impartiality, prompting calls from the pan-blue camp for the commission to be abolished.
Five of the six people at the meeting, including Chang, have resigned.
Huang said that the incident added to political distrust, making the already challenging task of transitional justice all the more difficult.
Huang said that while he was not made aware beforehand of the content to be discussed at an unofficial commission meeting that sparked the Sept. 12 incident, the mindset and views demonstrated that day nevertheless ran counter to the dangwai (黨外, “outside the party”) spirit, which he has adhered to for more than three decades.
“I shouldered the burden [of the chairmanship] for the sake of transitional justice. My letting go is also for the goal of transitional justice,” Huang said, adding that he hopes his resignation would allow the commission to renew and ensure its pursuits of “truth, responsibility, justice and reconciliation.”
Premier William Lai (賴清德) “reluctantly” approved Huang’s resignation after urging him several times to stay, the Executive Yuan said in a statement.
“The exoneration on Friday of wrongfully convicted individuals underscores the significance of the commission’s role in realizing transitional justice,” the Executive Yuan said, adding that Lai appreciated Huang’s bravery in shouldering the strenuous task and admired his decision to take responsibility for the scandal.
Commission member and spokeswoman Yang Tsui (楊翠) said that commission staff were not aware of Huang’s resignation beforehand and only learned yesterday that he had tendered oral resignations to Lai several times.
As the commission has a two-year deadline, its members and employees would continue its work despite Huang’s departure, Yang said.
According to the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice (促進轉型正義條例), a replacement chairperson is to be nominated by the premier and appointed with the consent of the Legislative Yuan.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS