A decision about the fate of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei would be made before early next year, Transitional Justice Commission members said yesterday.
The commission would also consider options for transitioning the Cihu Mausoleum (慈湖陵寢), where Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) is entombed, they told a news conference in Taipei.
The news conference had been called to announce the dates and locations of three public meetings on implementing transitional justice and a human-rights vision for the nation.
Photo: Wang Yi-song, Taipei Times
While legislation can provide recompense for the financial damages and loss to reputation suffered by victims of the White Terror era, such measures in themselves are not enough to meet the demands of justice, commission Deputy Chairman Chang Tien-chin (張天欽) said.
The commission is dedicated to recovering historical truths, removing authoritarian symbols and healing societal trauma, so it is inviting victims of political persecution or their surviving family members to the public meetings so that it can explain its goals and policies, and to hear their opinions, Chang said.
The first public meeting is to be held tomorrow at the Jingmei Human Rights Memorial and Cultural Park in Taipei’s Xindian District (新店), the commission said.
The second is scheduled for Sept. 16 at the Taichung Cultural and Creative Industries Park and the third will be at the Kaohsiung Municipal Library on Sept. 30.
The Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall would “certainly undergo a transition,” which the Ministry of Culture has been preparing for since last year, commission member Yang Tsui (楊翠) said.
The commission would soon begin talks on the specifics, such as uses for the site and what should be down with Chiang’s statute, she said.
The ministry is drafting amendments to the Organization Act of National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Management Office (國立中正紀念堂管理處組織法), which would lay out the steps regarding those issues, she said.
Asked about commission’s plans for the Cihu Mausoleum, Yang said the mausoleum is “definitely on the commission’s agenda,” but it has not begun discussions about it.
Lan Yun-jo (藍芸若), the daughter of White Terror victim Lan Ming-ku (藍明谷), said it is not right that the persecutors have not been identified or that she had to live with the infamy of being the daughter of an accused communist spy for 70 years.
“My father would have been pleased to visit the memorial parks if they had imprisoned him for a dozen years instead of being shot,” she said. “Many victims are living in the shadow of history and I hope the commission would give us justice.”
Lang Ming-ku, a 32-year-old teacher in Keelung, was arrested in 1951 and executed without trial.
TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT: A US Air Force KC-135 tanker came less than 1,000 feet of an EVA plane and was warned off by a Taipei air traffic controller, a report said A US aerial refueling aircraft came very close to an EVA Airways jet in the airspace over southern Taiwan, a military aviation news Web site said. A report published by Alert 5 on Tuesday said that automatic dependent surveillance–broadcast (ADS-B) data captured by planfinder.net on Wednesday last week showed a US Air Force KC-135 tanker “coming less than 1,000 feet [305m] vertically with EVA Air flight BR225 as both aircraft crossed path south of Taiwan” that morning. The report included an audio recording of a female controller from the Taipei air traffic control center telling the unidentified aircraft that it was
A series of discussions on the legacy of martial law and authoritarianism are to be held at the Taipei International Book Exhibition this month, featuring findings and analysis by the Transitional Justice Commission. The commission and publisher Book Republic organized the series, entitled “Escaping the Nation’s Labyrinth of Memory: What Authoritarian Symbols and Records Can Tell Us,” to help people navigate narratives through textual analysis and comparisons with other nations. The four-day series is to begin on Thursday next week with a discussion between commission Chairwoman Yang Tsui (楊翠), Polish-language translator Lin Wei-yun (林蔚昀), and Polish author and artist Pawel Gorecki comparing
MOVING OUT: A former professor said that rent and early education costs in Taipei are the nation’s highest, which makes it difficult for young people to start families The population of Taipei last year fell to the lowest in 23 years due to high rent, more transportation options and the expansion of northern cities into a single metropolis, academics and city officials said on Monday. Data released this month by the Ministry of the Interior showed that the capital was home to 2,602,418 people last year, down 42,623 from 2019. The decline is second only to 1993, when the population fell by 42,828 people, while Taipei’s population was the lowest it has been since 1997. Taipei saw the biggest drop among the six special municipalities, while Taoyuan led the group in
A legislator yesterday called for authorities to investigate the sale of Chinese-made, Internet-connected karaoke machines containing “propaganda songs.” Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) said she was approached by a person who had discovered Chinese patriotic songs such as My Motherland (我的祖國) — which is commonly referred to as China’s “second national anthem” — in Chinese-made karaoke devices sold in Taiwan. The machines are popular, as they can connect to the Internet, providing access to thousands of songs, she said. One retailer, who asked to remain anonymous, said that the machines first entered the local market about three years ago, starting with
RSS