The best way to deal with a tricky problem is to apply sound reasoning and reduce it to its most simple terms, so the facts can be ascertained and the correct solution applied. The worst thing to do is to become muddled, confuse the issue or over-complicate matters, otherwise after the mental chaos has subsided, nothing will have improved. A failure to bring about change might arise through insufficient consideration of the problem, although it is often caused by politicians shirking their responsibility.
The Ministry of Education, in seeking to follow through on President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) education policy, implemented its “greater China” curriculum on Saturday. These changes were produced by an opaque committee of non-professionals operating outside of the regular ministry framework. The committee was headed by Shih Hsin University professor Wang Hsiao-po (王曉波). Its express purpose was to allow certain people, brought into the fold of mainstream government during the fag-end of Ma’s administration, to give an illegal act an air of legality and legitimacy to reverse the declining fortunes of a small club of political elites amid pressure from the inevitable forces of democratization.
The problem is that 60 years ago, a “greater China” curriculum was forced through the education system via the barrel of a gun during the Martial Law period, so China-centric teaching material is the common experience of the vast majority of Taiwanese adults. Fast-forward 60 years or so and the children of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) party-state are at it once again, failing to take into consideration the shifting sands of society and generational change. Ever since 2008, KMT politicians have engaged in the delirious ravings of their parents’ generation, incessantly scheming to gradually return to the “motherland.”
During the final countdown to the end of the Ma administration, former education minister Chiang Wei-ling (蔣偉寧) and Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa (吳思華) — both politicians who allow their beliefs to trump the democratic consensus — have dispensed with public opinion and taken up the baton to vigorously promote changes to the curriculum. As a result, high-school history and civics teachers and vocational high-school students stood up in resistance. Despite this, Ma let slip that: “At most there are only a bit more than 100 errors in the curriculum,” while refusing to suspend its implementation.
Wu has even refused to have any further dialogue with students and teachers.
During the dead of night on July 23, students occupied ministry offices in Taipei; the result of a developing sequence of events. However, following this incident, in addition to the main dispute over the opaque process guiding the curriculum changes, three problems have been created:
First, the ministry is persisting in its efforts to bring charges against the students. Second, the police announced they received instructions from the ministry and prosecutors to arrest journalists. Third, the police seized journalists’ mobile phones, cameras and computers as evidence.
Just as is the case with the curriculum dispute itself, these three issues should all be the subject of a thorough investigation. Anyone with a sense of logic will see that these issues do not conflict with each other and that in each case, there is a separate line of responsibility. In reality, no logic exists. Responsibility for the chaotic adjustment of the curriculum lies squarely at Ma’s feet. For this reason, the ministry and the police acted on a whim and even recast the perpetrators as political victims.
Anyone who fails to understand these issues might not only suffer from muddled thinking and an inability to handle a series of complex matters simultaneously, they might also suffer from a lack of international outlook. The experience of far-reaching transitional justice within the former East Germany and the legal and human rights structures of advanced nations shows that although the age of political spin tactics — which were once able to form a “consensus” — will come to an end when the scales fall from the eyes of the public, a comprehensive period of reflection and self-cleansing is of crucial importance on the path to redemption.
Transitional justice will help the nation thoroughly investigate all matters related to the perpetrators and provides a systematic way of dealing with all the issues one at a time, while reflection and self-cleansing helps people draw a dividing line between the perpetrators and their behavior. This avoids confusion between perpetrator and victim, and avoids mistakenly defending the perpetrators. Only through these means is justice possible.
Taiwan is the classic example of a nation in which transitional justice is lagging, and a rational approach to differentiating between truth and falsehood will not be given the social importance it should have due to short-term personal interests and human perceptions. Clear evidence of this is the fact that the KMT has been able to continue to hold onto its illegally appropriated party assets, along with its ability to return to power and recover its authority.
Without a collective improvement in the quality of the national character, unconstitutional incidents will continue to occur as the authorities keep infringing on the rights of newsgatherers, the police arrest journalists and prosecutors restrict the right of abode of law-abiding people. These are all serious attacks carried out by the KMT party-state in recent years, which have had a detrimental impact upon the independence and freedom of the media and signal bad omens for the future.
Ma should take immediate responsibility for the curriculum situation. As for the ministry pressing charges against students and reporters, Wu should face up to the wave of anger in society and carefully consider the correct course of action. The police arresting journalists while they were on the job, the restrictions put on journalists to communicate and the confiscation of their equipment has turned them into suspects. The National Police Agency and the Taipei City Government should provide a clear explanation as to how they will administer punishment. The authority and responsibility of these four government departments is clear and simple: They should not procrastinate any further. Malicious tactics and cover-ups are the hallmarks of a society rotten to the core.
Translated by Edward Jones
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