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Museum's rejection shows irrational side of politics

Historian Lee Yung-chih (李永熾) said the most important thing he learned from heading the preparatory office of the National Human Rights Hall (國家人權紀念館) was gaining insight into the pointless strife of Taiwanese politics.

"I finally understood the nature of realpolitik in Taiwan, which is that politicians irrationally fight each other. I finally realized that the only reason for their endless quarrels was that they must fight political rivals at all costs," Lee said on Saturday, two days after the pan-blue-dominated legislature voted to demand the government stop preparations for the establishment of the hall.

On Thursday, lawmakers from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party (PFP) dominated the showdown vote in the legislature on whether to confirm the Executive Yuan's plan for a preparatory office for the hall.

Using their numerical advantage in the 223-seat legislature, the pan-blue parties passed a resolution declaring that the Executive Yuan must stop its plan for the preparatory office.

The legislature had delayed its review of the proposed organic law for a national human rights hall since June. The government also failed to secure passage of the law in a special legislative sitting at the beginning of July.

"The Cabinet's plan for setting up the preparatory office and the planned structure of the office violated the Central Laws and Regulations Standards Law (中央法規標準法)," KMT Legislator Huang Teh-fu (黃德福) said. "The Executive Yuan, therefore, should not have sent it to the legislature for reference," Huang said.

But lee doubted Huang's explanation.

"Opposition lawmakers confused me by their claim of a legal violation," Lee said.

The Cabinet came up with the plan after lawmakers stalled the review of the draft organic law for the human rights hall, he said.

The plan said the nature of the hall was unlike the formation of other government organs.

The hall would be a museum displaying Taiwan's development of human rights, from the White Terror era to the achievement of democracy.

"The opposition lawmakers failed to persuade me over their accusation of a legal violation," Lee said.

"However, it was the Legislative Yuan that stalled the draft bill at the Procedure Committee in June, despite President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) expressing hope for [it to pass]," Lee said.

"As a witness of the days in the 1940s and 1950s when Taiwanese people suffered unimaginable fear and persecution, I accept the job of heading the preparatory office and hope to contribute to the realization of the hall," said Lee, a history professor at National Taiwan University.

"The hall was proposed not only for honoring President Chen Shui-bian's pledge of founding a human rights state, but offering a chance for Taiwanese people to show to the world that the country has bid farewell to the dictatorship era.

"We uphold the universal value of human rights protection, while the foundation of the hall would symbolize that we are keeping that infamous era in mind and shall not move backward," Lee said.

He said opposition parties should think of victims' families before blocking the hall.

"It was irresponsible for the opposition parties to block the plan inexplicably. Instead, they should clearly state their objections rather than clogging the plan with petty maneuvers," Lee said.

They should be bold and state their objections in public, he said.

Presidential Office spokesman James Huang (黃志芳) said he regretted the legislature's decision.

The Presidential Office has two months to react to the legislature's move.

Huang said the Presidential Office sought further communications with the legislature.

KMT whip Lee Chia-chin (李嘉進) said the Presidential Office's violation of legal procedures was the cause of the legislative resolution.

"The KMT and PFP did not make any boycott as the pan-green bloc has claimed," he said.

DPP whip Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) nevertheless called on his pan-blue counterparts to not block the hall simply because they are against President Chen.

Upholding human rights should not become a battleground for political ideologies, he said.
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