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Lawmakers bicker over CKS holidays

Pan-green and pan-blue lawmakers exchanged heated words yesterday over the government's cancelation of anniversaries marking the birth and death of dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石).

The Ministry of the Interior (MOI) announced the move in a press statement on Wednesday, saying the motion had been approved by the Cabinet and was effective immediately.

The move is part of the government's efforts to rid the nation of symbols of Chiang Kai-shek, including renaming Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall to the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall and removing his statues.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator John Chiang (蔣孝嚴), grandson of Chiang Kai-shek, said that the move showed that the "the DPP [Democratic Progressive Party government's] days are numbered."

John Chiang described the DPP government's "anti-Chiang Kai-shek campaign" as a "kill-them-all" plan because it did not spare even those two days, which had long been changed from national holidays to memorial days.

Minister of the Interior Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋) yesterday rebutted the criticism.

Describing the commemoration days as vestiges of authoritarianism, Lee said they should never have existed in the first place and that their abolishment was long overdue.

No democratic country has a day to commemorate a particular individual unless he is the nation's founding father or has made a major contribution to the country, Lee said.

Noting that "half of the people in Taiwan disapprove of Chiang," Lee added that the government should not continue to coerce the public into honoring him, especially in light of his role in the 228 Incident of 1947 in which thousands of people were massacred by KMT troops.

Asked whether the ministry also plans to scrap the days marking the birth and passing of Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙), Lee said no, as those commemoration days are not controversial.

Meanwhile, KMT caucus whip Kuo Su-chun (郭素春) said the party would move to have the legal status of the regulation governing memorial days and holidays raised as soon as possible to prevent the Cabinet from making further amendments without legislative approval.

The KMT has a proposal pending legislative approval that calls for changing the regulation from an administrative directive to a piece of legislation.

Listing the changes the government had made to memorial days and holidays -- 228 Memorial Day on Feb. 28, Anti-Invasion Day on March 18 and Lifting of Martial Law Commemoration Day on July 15, Kuo said that they were all "ideological" moves.

DPP lawmakers, on the other hand, hailed the cancelation.

"There is nothing wrong with the abolition, as Chiang Ka-shek does not deserve the public's respect nor to be remembered," said DPP Legislator Kao Chien-chih (高建智).

The two memorial days were created at a time when the country was ruled by only one party -- the KMT -- and canceling those days is part of the government's efforts to implement transitional justice, Kao said.

In a separate setting, Cabinet spokesman Shieh Jhy-wey (謝志偉) said removing the remaining vestiges of Chiang was part of the nation's "disenchantment" on the road to implementing transitional justice, adding that the next step would be to eliminate all traces of the KMT's rule.

Although martial law was lifted long ago, many people are still living in the dark authoritarian era, Shieh said.

Only by removing the "ghost" of Chiang will they be able to "let the sunshine in," he said.
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