Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫堃) on April 18 announced that he would visit 19 possible sites for relocating the Legislative Yuan, rekindling a long debate about whether and where the legislature should move.
Parliaments are sometimes called “temples of democracy” and their appearance and environment are symbols of a democratic country.
The Legislative Yuan has since 1960 been located at the site of the former Taihoku Prefectural Second Girls’ High School, built during the Japanese colonial era. There is nothing wrong with using a high school to house the legislature provisionally, but 62 years and counting is anything but temporary.
Today, the nation’s democratic achievements are universally recognized, but the Legislative Yuan’s humble appearance and crowded environment clearly do not measure up to Taiwan’s accomplishments. The legislature must be relocated.
In deciding where to move the legislature, three conditions should be considered: The budget, which comes out of the public’s pocket, should be as low as possible; the site should be spacious; and it should not take long to build.
Based on these criteria, the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall is the most suitable location.
First, the land is readily available, so there is no need to appropriate it from private owners.
Second, the building does not need to be demolished, because it should be possible to convert its spacious interior. While some people might say its exterior shape and color resemble that of an emperor’s tomb, it could be redecorated and altered to fit the architectural and aesthetic principles of a government building.
Third, the large park outside the hall is wide open and suitable for gatherings, activities, petitions and protests. It is big enough for tens of thousands of people to assemble without affecting traffic.
Fourth, it is in the center of the city, and conveniently accessible by public transportation.
Another issue is that of the Legislative Yuan library, which is smaller than those of most universities and pales in comparison with the US Library of Congress. If the legislature is relocated to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, another building could be built nearby to serve as its library.
The National Central Library is just up the road, and its collection is so full as to affect the safety of the building. If a new Legislative Yuan library is built, it could not only complement the National Library, but also take over part of its burden.
An even more significant aspect of relocating to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall is that it could also resolve the transitional justice issues with the building.
Transformation of the hall has long been obstructed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and pan-blue parties, but even KMT Legislator Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) on April 8 said that his grandfather Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) and great-grandfather Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) “laid the foundation of democracy in Taiwan.”
If Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall is transformed into Taiwan’s “temple of democracy,” would that not also allow Chiang Wan-an to “lay the foundation of democracy in Taiwan” after the end of authoritarian rule?
Moreover, the pan-blue camp has already abandoned Chiang Kai-shek’s anti-communist line, so why insist on keeping the “temple of Chiang Kai-shek” and obstructing the emergence of a new temple to celebrate democracy?
Lee Hsiao-feng is an honorary professor at National Taipei University of Education.
Translated by Julian Clegg
From the Iran war and nuclear weapons to tariffs and artificial intelligence, the agenda for this week’s Beijing summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is packed. Xi would almost certainly bring up Taiwan, if only to demonstrate his inflexibility on the matter. However, no one needs to meet with Xi face-to-face to understand his stance. A visit to the National Museum of China in Beijing — in particular, the “Road to Rejuvenation” exhibition, which chronicles the rise and rule of the Chinese Communist Party — might be even more revealing. Xi took the members
Taiwan’s higher education system is facing an existential crisis. As the demographic drop-off continues to empty classrooms, universities across the island are locked in a desperate battle for survival, international student recruitment and crucial Ministry of Education funding. To win this battle, institutions have turned to what seems like an objective measure of quality: global university rankings. Unfortunately, this chase is a costly illusion, and taxpayers are footing the bill. In the past few years, the goalposts have shifted from pure research output to “sustainability” and “societal impact,” largely driven by commercial metrics such as the UK-based Times Higher Education (THE) Impact
The inter-Korean relationship, long defined by national division, offers the clearest mirror within East Asia for cross-strait relations. Yet even there, reunification language is breaking down. The South Korean government disclosed on Wednesday last week that North Korea’s constitutional revision in March had deleted references to reunification and added a territorial clause defining its border with South Korea. South Korea is also seriously debating whether national reunification with North Korea is still necessary. On April 27, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung marked the eighth anniversary of the Panmunjom Declaration, the 2018 inter-Korean agreement in which the two Koreas pledged to
I wrote this before US President Donald Trump embarked on his uneventful state visit to China on Thursday. So, I shall confine my observations to the joint US-Philippine military exercise of April 20 through May 8, known collectively as “Balikatan 2026.” This year’s Balikatan was notable for its “firsts.” First, it was conducted primarily with Taiwan in mind, not the Philippines or even the South China Sea. It also showed that in the Pacific, America’s alliance network is still robust. Allies are enthusiastic about America’s renewed leadership in the region. Nine decades ago, in 1936, America had neither military strength
RSS