Democratic procedures would be followed when deciding whether to remove statues of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) from school campuses, Minister of Education Pan Wen-chung (潘文忠) said yesterday, adding that it is inappropriate for schools to display authoritarian symbols.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) questioned the appropriateness of keeping Chiang statues in schools during a meeting of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee.
She urged the ministry to issue a statement to encourage schools to remove such statues as part of efforts to promote transitional justice on campuses.
As campuses are an integral part of education, it is inappropriate for schools in a democratic nation to display any authoritarian symbols, Pan said.
The minister said he would ask schools, particularly universities, to facilitate discussions on the issue and take proactive steps to promote the values of transitional justice.
Three students and a fourth person on Tuesday were arrested for allegedly defacing a Chiang statue at Fu Jen Catholic University in New Taipei City and obstructing police officers, while statues at National Sun Yat-sen University in Kaohsiung and National Kaohsiung Normal University were defaced over the 228 Peace Memorial Day holiday, Wu said.
National Sun Yat-sen University president Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) called the incident at his school a “learning process,” while National Kaohsiung Normal University president Wu Lien-shang (吳連賞) said that he “respected the expression of pluralistic opinions.”
Wu said that she was saddened to see that Fu Jen, her alma mater, allowed more than 50 police officers to enter the campus to deal with four people, since the university had security guards and military instructors on site at the time.
She asked Pan whether the decision was appropriate and whether the actions taken against the students were proportionate.
“As an overarching principle, troops and police officers must not enter schools without permission,” Pan said.
“The learning process is the most valuable part of education,” Pan said, adding that it was a pity the university did not turned the incident into a learning opportunity.
He called on the university to engage in dialogue with parents and students regarding the future of the statue to improve mutual understanding.
Three batches of banana sauce imported from the Philippines were intercepted at the border after they were found to contain the banned industrial dye Orange G, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. From today through Sept. 2 next year, all seasoning sauces from the Philippines are to be subject to the FDA’s strictest border inspection, meaning 100 percent testing for illegal dyes before entry is allowed, it said in a statement. Orange G is an industrial coloring agent that is not permitted for food use in Taiwan or internationally, said Cheng Wei-chih (鄭維智), head of the FDA’s Northern Center for
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A total lunar eclipse, an astronomical event often referred to as a “blood moon,” would be visible to sky watchers in Taiwan starting just before midnight on Sunday night, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. The phenomenon is also called “blood moon” due to the reddish-orange hue it takes on as the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon, completely blocking direct sunlight from reaching the lunar surface. The only light is refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere, and its red wavelengths are bent toward the moon, illuminating it in a dramatic crimson light. Describing the event as the most important astronomical phenomenon
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