During the Martial Law era, the ruling Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) had branches controlling the military, the police, the public sector and schools at every level.
This included the household registration system, for which police officers served as supervisors at every office. The purpose of integrating the police and the household registration system was to gather people’s personal information to put them under the KMT’s complete control.
Recently, a recall petition participant in Hualien was approached at his home by a household registration officer who asked to confirm his identity. This incident revealed that the intention behind the KMT’s plan to push through amendments to the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) — which, if passed, would require petitioners to provide a photocopy of their ID card — was to incite fear.
The KMT’s version of democracy is false. Recall petition participants should be free from the fear of their identity being exposed.
It is nearly impossible that the home visit in Hualien was the officer’s own idea. It must have been an order given by a supervisor with the approval of a superior who allowed the subordinate’s ridiculous behavior.
In Nantou, a brewery asked a civic group collecting signatures to recall KMT Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) to leave, saying that it had to maintain “political neutrality.”
Careful examination is required to determine which local governments are failing to maintain administrative neutrality, treating public servants as political tools as if Taiwan was still a one-party state in the Martial Law era.
The public sector’s interference in the civil society recall campaigns is meant to generate fear among the public and initiate democratic backsliding.
The Hualien household registration officer’s home visit was a contravention of human rights and constitutes voter coercion. It should be treated seriously and those responsible should be held accountable. It must not happen again, or Taiwan’s democracy, rule of law and human rights could all be compromised.
Chen Chi-nung is a political commentator.
Translated by Fion Khan
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