A necessary step toward achieving full transitional justice in Taiwan is to properly assign blame for its bloody past on the individuals who were responsible for the repression, academics said at a forum in Taipei yesterday contrasting Europe’s de-Nazification efforts with the restoration of dictator Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) name at one of Taipei’s main landmarks.
Work to replace the name plaque at National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall with its original name — Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall — began without prior notification close to midnight on Monday.
The move drew criticism from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which said that a murderous dictator like Chiang should never be commemorated in public spaces.
FINE-TUNING
While all academics attending the forum hosted by the DPP criticized the government’s decision to rename the hall, some said it was perhaps necessary to find ways to condemn Chiang without smearing the entire Mainlander population in Taiwan.
NAZI PRECEDENT
Wang Szu-wei (王思為), an assistant professor at Nanhua University’s department of nonprofit organization management, said that in Europe, it would be unfathomable for any government to erect a public monument to honor Adolf Hitler.
Moreover, to show the government’s determination to never repeat Hitler’s behavior and its contrition for the millions of victims of the infamous leader, Berlin has contributed money and effort to compensate the victims as well as educate the public on the truth about Hitler’s regime, he said.
“What Chiang did to Taiwanese was enough to be described as a crime against humanity. It is only because Taiwan is not a signatory to the International Criminal Court that the case has not been brought before The Hague,” he said.
He also condemned the use of taxpayers’ money to commemorate the dictator.
Tamkang University public administration professor Shih Cheng-feng (施正峰) said that while condemning Chiang was essential, it was crucial that this be done in a way that does not target all the Mainlanders in Taiwan.
“We often talk about collective memory, but the problem is, whose memory should we go by? We need to uncover the truth of what Chiang did — both the good and the bad,” he said.
WEDGE
National Chengchi University history professor Hsueh Hua-yuen (薛化元) told the forum that what continues to serve as a wedge between Taiwan’s ethnic groups was the lack of blame assigned to the individuals who were responsible for the crimes committed under the Chiang regime.
A good number of Mainlanders” were also victimized during the White Terror era and it would be beneficial to ethnic harmony if the public — both ethnic Taiwanese and Mainlanders — could focus on their collective memory of that period, he said.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Many Japanese couples are coming to Taiwan to obtain donated sperm or eggs for fertility treatment due to conservatism in their home country, Taiwan’s high standards and low costs, doctors said. One in every six couples in Japan is receiving infertility treatment, Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare data show. About 70,000 children are born in Japan every year through in vitro fertilization (IVF), or about one in every 11 children born. Few people accept donated reproductive cells in Japan due to a lack of clear regulations, leaving treatment in a “gray zone,” Taichung Nuwa Fertility Center medical director Wang Huai-ling (王懷麟)
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
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