The Legislative Yuan yesterday passed a proposal to make April 7 “National Freedom of Speech Day” in honor of democracy movement pioneer Deng Nan-jung (鄭南榕), who committed suicide by self-immolation 20 years ago.
The move came after Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said at a memorial gathering for Deng on Monday that the party would make the proposal.
“Deng contributed immensely to the liberty that the people of Taiwan enjoy today,” DPP Legislator Wong Chin-chu (翁金珠) said.
Wong represented the party in making the proposal, and told the Taipei Times that since no one had objected, the proposal now awaits final approval from the Executive Yuan.
On April 7, 1989, Deng, then editor-in-chief of Freedom Era Weekly (自由時代週刊), set himself on fire as heavily armed police attempted to break into his office following his 71 days of self-imposed isolation after he was charged with sedition for the anti-government views expressed in his magazine.
When he set himself on fire, Deng said that “the KMT cannot catch me, they can only catch my corpse.”
Deng was also involved in the erection of the first 228 Incident monument in Chiayi City in 1989, which led to a watershed discussion of the 228 massacre, Wong said, adding that the legislature later passed the 228 victims compensation program.
In response, KMT caucus deputy secretary-general Lin Hung-chih (林鴻池) said he did not know what Wong meant by saying that the legislature passed her proposal.
“There are certain legal procedures to establish a national memorial day — memorial days cannot be determined by legislative decisions alone,” he said.
“If the DPP feels it is important to establish a Freedom of Speech Day, they would have done so when they were in office. That they didn’t shows that the DPP only wants to bring up the issue to get sympathy,” Lin added.
In related news, Huang Hua (黃華), who initiated the New Country Movement with Deng in 1988, began to stage a seven-day hunger strike yesterday at Liberty Plaza in Taipei in protest of the government’s plan to sign an economic cooperation framework agreement with China.
Huang said he was also doing so to continue Deng’s unfinished mission of establishing a sovereign country.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS