A private think tank yesterday proposed changing the name of Chiang Kai-shek (CKS) Memorial Hall to remove the remnants of authoritarian rule under the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime.
The forum, organized by Taiwan Thinktank, was the second in a series of its panel discussion of justice in transition. The first focused on the KMT's stolen party assets.
Event host Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明), an assistant research fellow in political science at Academia Sinica, said that although Taiwan has transformed itself from authoritarianism to democracy, social justice is still in a transitional period.
"We are not here to talk about how to get even with the KMT but to discuss how to turn the authoritarian legacy into democratic assets," he said.
Lawyer Wang Ping-yun (
Wang proposed two possible approaches to changing the name of the CKS Memorial Hall.
First was to amend the law governing the organization and management of the hall. This may be more time-consuming as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) does not enjoy a legislative majority.
Second was to relocate the exhibits housed at the museum to Tzuhu (慈湖), Taoyuan County, where Chiang's remains rest in a temporary mausoleum.
The hall could then be turned into a cultural or historic park in commemoration of the nation's democratization process, he said.
Lin Li-tsai (林黎彩), secretary-general of the Taiwan 228 Care Association, said that most of the families of the victims of "228 Incident" think that the memorial hall should be turned into a 228 memorial museum.
She said she was curious to know why the government continues to spend tens of thousands of taxpayers' money to maintain the hall, in spite of the publication of a book by the 228 Incident Memorial Foundation saying that the KMT should be held responsible for the 1947 massacre.
The book alleged that former president Chiang Kai-shek, as well as Chen Yi (陳儀) -- the man Chiang appointed as executive administrator of Taiwan -- were the masterminds behind the incident.
Deputy Minister of Education Chou Tsan-der (周燦德) emphasized the importance of reaching a public consensus over the issue.
"It is meaningless if we change only the name, but leave everything else intact," he said. "It is equally meaningless if we force through the name change but do not get any public support."
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