Taipei City’s Cultural Assets Review Committee members agreed yesterday that preserving a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) emblem on the East Gate was a debatable issue and that modifications were permissible if done legally.
Three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City councilors — Chuang Ruei-hsiung (莊瑞雄), Liu Yao-ren (劉耀仁) and Huang Hsiang-chun (黃向群) — who slapped paint over the KMT emblem on the gate on Tuesday did not cause structural damage, so the Taipei City Government could reconsider bringing them to justice, members said.
Committee member Huang Fu-sen (黃富三) said the Council of Cultural Affairs had failed to identify the emblem when it designated the East Gate a national monument in 1998.
“Now that we face this problem, what we can do is discuss whether or not the emblem, a product of a party-state, should be preserved. This is a debatable issue,” he said.
The committee members made the remarks in a public hearing organized by Taipei City’s Department of Cultural Affairs yesterday to discuss whether or not the KMT emblem should be removed from the gate.
The three councilors, KMT Taipei City councilors and about a dozen citizens attended the public hearing to express their opinions.
Chuang yesterday defended his action in the public hearing and slammed the city government for ignoring opposition to the emblem.
“The government cannot make the decision for the people and it should not hold such a dictatorial attitude,” he said.
Participating citizens were divided on whether the emblem should be removed, while some challenged the city government for failing to hold more public hearings gather opinions.
KMT Taipei City Councilor Lai Su-ru (賴素如), who attended the public hearing on behalf of the KMT’s Culture and Communication Commission, did not clarify the KMT’s stance on the matter, and said the party would leave the issue to the CCA.
Commissioner of the department Lee Yongping (李永萍) said the department would gather opinions in a public hearing and present them to the CCA, which holds authority over the monument.
“The department has no stance on this issue and we will do whatever the CCA decides,” she said.
The KMT emblems were first carved and painted on the East Gate and other three historical gates in 1966 when the KMT modified the Qing Dynasty gates.
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