Tuesday marked the 27th anniversary of the lifting of martial law, which ended the era of authoritarian rule in Taiwan and put the nation on the path of democratic reform. However, as a result of the nation’s failure to institute transitional justice over the course of its democratization, a poisonous residue of authoritarianism lingers on.
The absurdity of this was highlighted this week in a campaign by a group of high-school students from prestigious schools such as Taipei Chenggong High School, Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School, Taipei First Girls’ High School and National Tainan Girls’ Senior High School, who co-produced and released a video calling for the removal of Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) statues from all campuses nationwide.
“Although Chiang made contributions to the Republic of China, he imposed martial law and the ‘White Terror,’ severely violated human rights and repressed democracy and freedom,” the students said in the video. “Why does Chiang’s statue still stand at schools? The man denied the people democracy, freedom and human rights. Why should people pay respect to him?”
Indeed, with rhetoric from politicians often touting democracy as the nation’s greatest achievement and preaching the importance of democratic values, too few push for the discarding of authoritarian ideas and values to consolidate a national conscience on democracy.
As such, nearly three decades have passed since Taiwan became a democracy, yet statues honoring a dictator who was also the main culprit behind the 228 Massacre continue to stand tall and proud in all corners of the country, with many campus buildings, public spaces, streets and local districts named after him.
This ridiculous ubiquitous presence suggests the nation’s sense of transitional justice remains lacking. The statues of the main instigator of the White Terror era stand as an insult to the sacrifices made by Taiwan’s democracy pioneers; these statutes also serve as a striking irony to the very democratic achievements hyped by the nation’s political leaders.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), for one, has often trumpeted his administration’s achievements in advancing the nation’s democratic development and has expressed hopes that all educators in Taiwan would help the public better understand the lessons of history and to cherish human rights.
If Ma is at all serious with his words, he should take the students’ campaign as an opportunity to acknowledge them for understanding the importance of transitional justice, echo their call to eradicate totalitarian worship and encourage remembrance of those who resisted dictatorship, rather than remembering the dictators.
Unfortunately, not only has Ma kept mum, the increasing crackdowns and violence by the state apparatus against civilians under his presidency these past years have bred concerns from human rights groups over what they perceive as regression of human rights in the country.
Taiwan’s democracy has often been touted as a success story, and it is indeed a major asset to the nation that all Taiwanese should be proud of.
However, in light of the Ma government paying mere lip service to democracy, the students’ video campaign comes as a timely reminder to all Taiwanese that a lack of action for transitional justice is preventing Taiwan from becoming a healthy and mature democracy.
Members of the public collectively must therefore not sit in complacency, but need to be very wary and watchful to consolidate our fragile democracy.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
In an article published on this page on Tuesday, Kaohsiung-based journalist Julien Oeuillet wrote that “legions of people worldwide would care if a disaster occurred in South Korea or Japan, but the same people would not bat an eyelid if Taiwan disappeared.” That is quite a statement. We are constantly reading about the importance of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), hailed in Taiwan as the nation’s “silicon shield” protecting it from hostile foreign forces such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and so crucial to the global supply chain for semiconductors that its loss would cost the global economy US$1
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
Sasha B. Chhabra’s column (“Michelle Yeoh should no longer be welcome,” March 26, page 8) lamented an Instagram post by renowned actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) about her recent visit to “Taipei, China.” It is Chhabra’s opinion that, in response to parroting Beijing’s propaganda about the status of Taiwan, Yeoh should be banned from entering this nation and her films cut off from funding by government-backed agencies, as well as disqualified from competing in the Golden Horse Awards. She and other celebrities, he wrote, must be made to understand “that there are consequences for their actions if they become political pawns of
RSS