The government is racing against time to preserve oral histories of survivors of the White Terror before they pass away, Minister of Culture Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) yesterday said at the Jingmei Human Rights Memorial and Cultural Park, where she met several former political prisoners, academics and human right activists and asked their advice on the National Human Rights Museum currently under preparation.
The planned museum includes a culture park in Jingmei, which once served as a military detention center where political dissidents were tried from the late 1960s to the 1980s, as well as a 32 hectare memorial park on Green Island (綠島) that was used to imprison prisoners of conscience.
A preparatory office was set up in December last year, and its current task is to collect, restore and manage documents and information relating to prisoners and victims from 1949, when martial law was declared in Taiwan until 1987, when it was lifted, government officials said.
Photo: Hu Shuan-shiang, Taipei Times
Former political prisoner Liu Chia-chin (劉佳欽) said that it was urgent to form a consultative committee so that different voices and suggestions could be heard and adopted by the museum. He also urged the government to focus its limited budget and resources on people and content rather than facilities.
To reach a larger number of people, former prisoner Chen Sung (陳松) suggested the museum recruit interested college and university students to do internships and volunteer work so that younger generations could learn about the nation’s past.
On the issue of oral history preservation, human rights activist Chen Ming-cheng (陳銘城) said that there was not enough time for museum staff to conduct one-on-one interviews with survivors, most of whom are in their 70s and 80s.
“We can do a lot more if local governments team up with local cultural and historical societies, as well as victim groups, to do the job,” Chen Ming-cheng said.
Academia Sinica research fellow Wu Nai-teh (吳乃德) echoed Chen Ming-cheng’s view, adding that it takes time to build trust between the government and victims’ families.
“It is difficult for the families to trust the government that once oppressed them. Donating personal objects and documents are just the beginning. The next step is to let the families know how their donations will be preserved, displayed and used. It’s another main task of the museum,” Wu said.
The researcher also said the National Archives should make public the classified files relating to political cases during the White Terror era. The access to original files has been limited even to family members seeking to understand what happened, Wu added.
Lung promised to negotiate with the National Archives on the matter, saying she was stunned when first learning that even now “it is difficult for family members to obtain letters left by their loved ones before they died.”
At yesterday’s meeting with Lung, Chen Meng-ho (陳孟和), who was jailed at Green Island’s New Life Correction Center for 15 years, donated an oil painting depicting what the island looked like during the White Terror era to the museum and invited Lung to pay a visit to Green Island, not as “an governmental official,” but as “a cultural worker.”
During his imprisonment, Cheng Meng-ho took photographs and created a number of sketches and drawings that were later used by the now-defunct Council for Cultural Affairs to reconstruct the prison.
A domestically developed “suicide drone,” also known as a loitering munition, would be tested and evaluated in July, and could enter mass production next year, Taiwan’s weapons developer said on Wednesday. The yet-to-be-named drone was among nine drone models unveiled by the National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST) on Tuesday. The drone has been dubbed the “Taiwanese switchblade” by Chinese-language media, due to its similarity to the US-made AeroVironment Switchblade 300, which has been used by Ukraine in counterattacks during Russia’s invasion. It has a range of more than 10km, a flight time of more than 15 minutes, and an electro-optical
OFFLINE: People who do not wish to register can get the money from select ATMs using their bank card, ID number and National Health Insurance card number Online registration for NT$6,000 (US$196.32) cash payments drawn from last year’s tax surplus is to open today for eligible people whose national ID or permanent residency number ends in either a zero or a one, the Ministry of Finance said on Monday. Officials from the ministry revealed which days Taiwanese and eligible foreigners would be able to register for the cash payments at a joint news conference with the Ministry of Digital Affairs. Online registration is to open tomorrow for those whose number ends in a two or three; on Friday for those that end in a four or five: on Saturday
Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) officials are investigating why a Starlux Airlines flight to Penang, Malaysia, returned to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport nearly two hours after takeoff yesterday morning. The airline said in a statement that Flight JX721 to Penang took off from Taoyuan airport at 9:20am. “After the dashboard showed a signal of an abnormality in the hydraulic system, the captain followed standard operating procedures and returned the flight to Taoyuan airport for safety precautions,” the airline said, adding that the flight landed safely at the airport at 11:04am. The airline arranged for the passengers to have lunch after the flight landed and
WORKING UP AN APPETITE: Sales at the Rueifong Night Market surged 20 to 30 percent, while seats at Liouhe Night Market were packed until 1am, market officials said South Korean pop band Blackpink’s concerts over the weekend in Kaohsiung helped draw large crowds to local night markets, the Kaohsiung City Government said yesterday. The two concerts on Saturday and Sunday at Kaohsiung National Stadium drew more than 90,000 people. The city government offered NT$50 vouchers to spend locally to concertgoers who showed their ticket stubs. Liouhe Night Market (六合夜市) management committee head Chuang Chi-chang (莊其章) said that crowds over the weekend surged at about 10pm and the market remained packed until 1:30am. “Almost all the seats were filled,” Chuang said. Night market stall owners had stocked up in expectation of an increased number