National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall (
After being sealed off to the public since Thursday, the Democracy Hall made its official debut at 10am yesterday, with its newly decorated arch and brand-new name plaque.
Ministry of Education Secretary-General Chuang Kuo-jung (莊國榮), who oversaw the project, said the renaming of an area that was originally designed to worship dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) was long overdue.
PHOTO: CNA
"Foreign tourists can now truly experience Taiwan's transitional justice," he said.
The renaming project was part of the administration's push to purge the nation of all remnants of Chiang. In March, Kaohsiung City Mayor Chen Chu (
Chuang said no decision had been made yet on the 6.3m statue of Chiang inside the hall or the signature blue-trimmed white wall surrounding the 240,000m2 park. However, there has been talk of relocating the statue and demolishing the wall.
One elderly woman, who identified herself as Wang, bemoaned the government's hasty decision to rename the site, but said it would not deter her from doing her daily exercises at the plaza.
One supporter said that renaming the plaza "Liberty Square" was most fitting because it symbolized that the nation had been "completely liberated from the grasp of the evil Chiang regime."
Several Democratic Progressive Party lawmakers went to the ministry yesterday morning to commend Chuang for his leadership in overseeing the project.
Chuang has become a household name because of his snappy comebacks and caustic remarks about the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and its top leaders, including calling presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) "sissies," "gay-like" and "wimps."
Chuang also ignored Taipei City's Department of Labor's lawsuit against him and the ministry for allegedly vandalizing a historic site, saying he had nothing to fear because he did not break the law by following an order from the Council of Cultural Affairs.
Earlier yesterday, Su Ying-kuei (
Su said the city government had sent an official document on Thursday urging the ministry to "improve the scaffolding" covering the hall and to halt further work.
However, the ministry resumed work on the hall without obtaining the city government's go-ahead, Su told reporters.
Su said the city government had filed lawsuits against Minister of Education Tu Cheng-sheng (杜正勝), Chuang and other personnel involved in removing the inscription from the gateway on charges of interference with official business and violation of the Criminal Code.
"The Taipei City Government will never allow anyone to override the law. We will punish anyone who disregards the law," Su said.
"We hope everyone can understand that no one can override the law, not even the president," he said.
While Su was speaking, some visitors to the hall applauded him while those others urged him to stop talking.
In related developments, KMT Spokeswoman Chen Shu-jung (
"If we really have to play mean tricks, I can just go on and say Chuang is not `man' enough, but this is meaningless," she said.
"I I believe we need to stop the wrangling and get down to business," she said.
In other news, Wang Jui-chang (王瑞璋), the ETTV cameraman who was badly injured last Thursday when a truck plowed into a group of journalists covering a protest at the memorial, underwent multiple surgeries yesterday at National Taiwan University Hospital.
Hospital spokesman Lin Chih-chang (林繼昌) said the surgery went smoothly and Wang would be in intensive care overnight.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
Taiwan next year plans to launch its first nationwide census on elderly people living independently to identify the estimated 700,000 seniors to strengthen community-based healthcare and long-term care services, the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) said yesterday. Minister of Health and Welfare Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said on the sidelines of a healthcare seminar that the nation’s rapidly aging population and declining birthrate have made the issue of elderly people living alone increasingly pressing. The survey, to be jointly conducted by the MOHW and the Ministry of the Interior, aims to establish baseline data and better allocate care resources, he
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