Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) made contributions to Taiwan’s democracy and because the nation is a diverse society, people’s contributions and demerits can be discussed together.
Ko on Friday — the eve of the 30th anniversary of Chiang’s death — attended the book launch of a former government insider’s story on Chiang’s strategic changes in his late years.
“Some people praise him for being the helmsman of Taiwan’s democratic reform, but others criticize him as a dictator who purged his political opponents and seriously violated human rights,” Ko said. “The political reforms introduced during his later years came under the pressure of democracy drives, both domestically and internationally.”
It is worth pondering why a dictator is still remembered and cherished by many people decades after his death, Ko added.
Ko said as a former surgeon who values practical decisions based on a rational mindset, he feels that people should speak honestly if they want to understand each other and bring about change.
If more information is made public, allowing for more rational discussions and reflections on historical truth, people can avoid making the same mistakes in the future, Ko said, adding that the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice (促進轉型正義條例) could be an opportunity for Taiwan to review its history.
The road to democracy and freedom in Taiwan has been unstable, but “president Chiang’s efforts in following the trend of the time were contributive,” he said.
Ko’s speech raised suspicion among some that he was trying to win support from members of the pan-blue camp.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) criticized Ko for praising Chiang, saying it was “loathsome” if he made the speech to gain support in this year’s mayoral election.
The Act on Promoting Transitional Justice should help solve the nation’s current problems, prevent the same mistakes from being made again and hopefully create more room for cooperation, Ko said.
It should not be used to worsen the situation or create more hate among the public, he said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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