Civic groups yesterday said that the national holidays retained in the rest of the year as a result of the stalled passage of amendments to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) — which would scrap the seven national holidays while keeping the 40-hour workweek — are all either irrelevant to Taiwanese or commemorate autocrats.
Retrocession Day observed on Oct. 25, Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) birthday on Oct. 31, Sun Yat-sen’s (孫中山) birthday on Nov. 12 and Constitution Day on Dec. 25 are the four national holidays that are to be kept in the rest of the year as the amendments have not cleared the legislature.
“These are inappropriate holidays that should not be observed,” Taiwan Society chairman Chang Yeh-sen (張葉森) said, adding that that it is “weird” for a democratic society to commemorate autocrats, which is tantamount to lauding authoritarianism.
“National holidays should commemorate historical moments that are crucial to Taiwan,” he added.
“Glorious retrocession” is a political term used by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime, Chang said. “[The retrocession] was, in fact, the KMT regime’s takeover of Taiwan in 1945 following the end of the Japanese colonial era, not to mention that there were thousands of Taiwanese massacred in the 228 Incident in 1947.”
Chiang is an extremely controversial figure in Taiwan, he said, a dictator under whose watch the 228 Incident and the White Terror era took place.
“Commemorating the ‘retrocession’ and Chiang Kai-shek is unacceptable for many Taiwanese,” he said, criticizing the observance of Chiang’s birthday as a national holiday as “exceedingly absurd.”
Southern Taiwan Society chairman Chang Fu-chu (張復聚) said that the workers’ protest against the cancelation of the seven national holidays reflects the unreasonableness of Taiwan’s long working hours.
The country has been relying on labor-intensive industries with low added value, he said, adding that with the development of innovative industries that would raise income and reduce working hours, “days off would increase accordingly.”
Chang Fu-chu said that working hours should be reduced and the number of days off increased, but inappropriate holidays should not be observed.
“The days to be commemorated should be Taiwanese-consciousness-centered,” he said. “Chiang is not a positive figure and the so-called founding father [Sun Yat-sen] is not really a founding father [of Taiwan].”
Sun was the KMT’s chairman and in 1940 the KMT Central Standing Committee installed him as the ROC’s founding father, “without the people’s consent,” Chang Fu-chu said, adding that the “glorious retrocession” was a “re-colonization” of Taiwan by a party-state.
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