Former premier Yu Shyi-kun (游錫堃), along with other Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and pan-green camp leaders, yesterday condemned remarks by former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and others from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) that compared passage of the Anti-infiltration Act (反滲透法) with the Martial Law era and claimed the nation had fallen victim to “green terror.”
Ma yesterday said: “Passing the Anti-infiltration Act is like restoring martial law in Taiwan. It was the darkest day and the most shameful day in the history of Republic of China Constitution.”
Yu lashed out at the former president at a DPP campaign event in Taipei.
Photo: Hsieh Wu-hsiung, Taipei Times
“You would know what martial law is like, Mr Ma... Taiwan suffered much during martial law under the regimes of the two Chiangs [Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and his son, Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國)] and you know well how harshly they dealt with dissidents,” Yu said. “How can you compare the passage of the Anti-infiltration Act with living under martial law?”
“Ma has distorted the facts so much,” Yu added. “I feel that he has a malicious heart. Martial law was used to prosecute and oppress internal dissidents. Passage of the act was done to defend our nation against communist China’s infiltration and interference. It is to safeguard Taiwan — for peace and national security.”
Yu told supporters about reading a book by Lin Shu-zhi (林樹枝), a victim of the White Terror era who spent 12 years in prison for his role in the 1979 Kaohsiung Incident.
In the book, Lin wrote about his experiences during the Martial Law era and included research from government documents, writing that the authorities had executed at least 256 dissidents, handed down jail sentences to at least 6,000 people and tortured prisoners, Yu said.
“Ma, do you really know what martial law was like? Yu asked. “How many dissidents and political activists suffered the atrocities committed by your party?”
“The insinuation that the DPP is perpetuating ‘green terror’ is nonsense. The accusation comes from political parties and groups who take orders from China. Such talk does not benefit healthy debate in a democratic society,” Economic Democracy Union convener Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) said.
“Many political parties and groups are spreading rumors and disinformation about how the act will be applied, but the provisions will not punish Taiwanese for going across the [Taiwan] Strait to meet with Chinese officials,” Lai said.
Lai said that many civic groups welcomed the act.
“The act can become an important weapon for us in fighting Beijing’s propaganda, with its ‘united front’ tactics, its political warfare and disinformation campaign to destabilize and eventually annex Taiwan,” he added.
Independent Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐), who is seeking re-election, said the legislature discussed the legislation for a long time, adding that KMT legislators did not voice much of an opinion, only bringing up vague concepts when it was their turn to speak about the legislation.
“The KMT has over the past year stood with with China on the protests in Hong Kong, amendments to the National Security Act (國家安全法) and deliberations on the Anti-infiltration Act,” Lim said. “The KMT’s stance and its opposition were exactly what China wanted. Are all of these just a coincidence?”
FATAL FIRE: The health department is trying to contact the inspector who visited the site of the illegal nursing home to ask why they did not advise follow-up checks The Taipei City Government yesterday said that a health department inspector last year had visited the site of a long-term care facility in Neihu District (內湖) after receiving a report questioning its status. A fire broke out at the facility on Tuesday afternoon, killing three people. The Taipei Fire Department said that it received a report about a fire on the first floor of a four-story residential building on Kangning Road Sec. 1 at 2:38pm on Tuesday, firefighters arrived at 2:43pm and the fire was put out by 3:07pm. The firefighters found three men in beds and rushed them to hospital for
THE CHINA CONNECTION: As Beijing’s aggression increases, so does Taiwanese consciousness, making a new constitution imperative, Hsu Wei-chun said If the nation is to ratify a new constitution, it must first end any illusions about the current document’s relevance to Taiwan, an academic told a forum in Taipei yesterday. For the constitutional revisionist movement to succeed, it needs public enthusiasm, the right timing and a clear plan of action, Chung Yuan Christian University associate professor Hsu Wei-chun (徐偉群) told attendees at the event titled “Imagining a New Constitution for a New Era,” which was organized by the National Taiwan University Graduate Student Association. The Constitution exists under the “one China” framework and has little relevance to Taiwan, Hsu said, adding that
Yuchi Township (魚池) fishers have appealed to the Nantou County Government for help in dealing with an invasive fish species in Sun Moon Lake (日月潭), where it has devastated the local ecosystem. Fishers at Sun Moon Lake have been using electrofishing in an attempt to eliminate the giant snakehead fish — found in Africa and Southeast Asia — but they have struggled to keep up with the growing population of the species, which breeds during September and October, the county government said on Monday. The county has contacted researchers at National Tsing Hua University, saying it hoped they could come up
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday urged Beijing to respect the median line of the Taiwan Strait by immediately stopping its military intimidation of Taiwan, as such actions would only hurt the feelings of Taiwanese. Beijing should immediately stop making military provocations against Taiwan, Ma wrote on Facebook after Chinese warplanes in the past week have made numerous forays across the median line that divides the Taiwan Strait. Although it has never officially acknowledged the median line, Beijing used to respect it, Ma said in response to comments on Monday by Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌), who said
RSS