A growing number of people are becoming skeptical about the government’s resolve to pursue transitional justice.
Pushing for transitional justice to leave young people a healthy democracy was one of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) main promises during her presidential campaign and was no doubt a major reason for her victory, as she echoed the public’s yearning for justice and fairness.
However, Tsai and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) have made the public doubt exactly how serious they are about addressing transitional justice and consolidating the nation’s democracy.
A symbolic representation of the party’s commitments is a draft bill for promoting transitional justice, which has been sitting idly in the legislature for more than a year, after it cleared the legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee in June last year.
“Pushing for transitional justice is one of the most important missions for Taiwan’s democracy,” Tsai said on Facebook on Feb. 26, as she marked the 70th anniversary of the 228 Massacre, adding: “I also hope the draft transitional justice promotion act will clear the legislative floor during the current legislative session … so that we can have an independent agency responsible for promoting transitional justice.”
Tsai’s words might sound reassuring and sincere, but looking back at her promises, one cannot help but note the sharp contrast to what is actually happening. The “current legislative session” Tsai then spoke of has long passed and the fall session, convened on Sept. 22, is to adjourn in little more than one month.
The DPP has repeatedly said that it had marked the transitional justice bill as the caucus’ priority during the fall session, but words that are not followed by concrete actions are just words.
During the Legislative Yuan’s plenary session on Friday last week, the New Power Party sought to place the draft legislation for promoting transitional justice and draft amendments to the Referendum Act (公民投票法) as the first and second items on the meeting’s agenda, but the motion was voted down by the DPP-controlled legislature.
There are only two bills on promoting transitional justice — one from the DPP caucus and another from DPP Legislator Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) — so the DPP in effect scuppered its own proposals to address human-rights abuses perpetrated by the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime under martial law, rectify unjust verdicts and remove symbols of authoritarianism, and to establish a special committee to investigate abuses.
DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said that passing the legislation is on the caucus’ agenda, but that it “has its own timetable.”
How long does the DPP-controlled legislature intend to wait to pass the bill?
White Terror victim Tsai Kun-lin (蔡焜霖) has said that many of his friends who were politically persecuted have passed away.
Time is running out for victims now in their 80s and 90s who had hoped a DPP government would realize transitional justice, so that justice can be served and their reputations restored, Tsai Kun-lin said.
“Pushing for transitional justice is a necessary step for any democratic nation transitioning from authoritarian rule… It is the government’s responsibility to deal with illegitimate party assets, to uncover the truth about human rights violations and problematic policies enacted during authoritarian rule, and to restore people’s rights,” Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) said on the eve of this year’s 228 Memorial Day.
The Taiwanese public now know that Tsai, the DPP and government officials can talk the talk, but when will they prove to the public that they can walk the walk?
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