The Executive Yuan yesterday dismissed an accusation by the PFP that the display of declassified government documents relating to the 1979 Kaohsiung Incident was politically motivated.
"It has nothing to do with elections, nor is it politically motivated because it's the government's established policy to declassify and display documents regarding significant historic events," Lin Chia-cheng (林嘉誠), chairman of the Cabinet's Research, Development and Evaluation Commission, said in a statement made available yesterday.
Instead of currying favor with the ruling party, the statement said, the National Archives, which released the documents and organized their display, is a neutral organization.
"The role the institution plays here is to make public the information but not to interpret it," Lin said.
Lin made the remarks in response to the PFP's questioning of the government's motives in disclosing and displaying the documents.
At the time of the incident, PFP Chairman James Soong (
The display, featuring some 100 government documents, will run from March 1 to March 12 in Taipei and between April 4 and April 13 in Kaohsiung.
The PFP also accused Lin of being a traitor during the time of the event and of providing intelligence to the Government Information Office. The party did not elaborate on the charges.
"As a doctorate-degree candidate at National Taiwan University at that time, I didn't report to the government about the incident nor did I take any money from the government to provide them with information regarding the incident," Lin said in the statement.
The Kaohsiung Incident, also known as the Formosa Incident, began as an anti-government demonstration organized by Formosa Magazine on Dec. 10, 1979.
The magazine was a front for a broad alliance of tang wai, or outside the party, activists. It ended with a violent confrontation between the crowd and police and the court martialing of eight people.
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