Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) yesterday announced that draft bills to promote transitional justice would be addressed during a plenary session on Tuesday after cross-caucus negotiations broke down again yesterday.
The four legislative caucuses have been at loggerheads since the bills were tendered last year.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said that a major difference between the DPP’s and the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) proposals is the KMT seeks to redress the rights of victims of injustice from the Dutch period about 400 years ago, while the DPP’s version limits the time frame to the authoritarian era from 1945, when the Republic of China (ROC) government retreated to Taiwan, to 1992, when the Period of National Mobilization for Suppression of the Communist Rebellion (動員戡亂時期) ended.
The DPP had said that the period covered by the KMT’s bill is too extensive and would cause difficulties when the transitional justice act is enforced.
He asked the KMT caucus to clarify what it meant by proposing a draft article saying that efforts should be made to “fully preserve, maintain and promote authoritarian symbols.”
A source of contention between the DPP and the New Power Party (NPP) are that the DPP believes a transitional justice promotion committee should be designated as a tier-two agency overseen by the Cabinet, while the NPP believes such an agency should be directly overseen by the Presidential Office, Ker said.
The NPP has also proposed that the law be titled the Act on Attaining Transitional Justice (實踐轉型正義條例) rather than the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice (促進轉型正義條例), as proposed by the DPP.
KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Wei-chou (林為洲) said not all authoritarian symbols should be removed, as they can often serve as cautionary reminders about the violations of human rights in the past, citing as an example, the prisons on the Green Island that were used to jail political dissidents.
KMT Legislator Sra Kacaw (鄭天財) said the ROC government inherited from the Taiwan Governor’s Office large areas of Aboriginal territories that have yet to be returned to Aborigines, which was unconstitutional and constitute violations of their freedom and human rights.
This act of injustice is not included in the DPP’s bill, he said.
NPP Legislator Kawlo Iyun Pacidal, an Amis, said that unless the DPP is just “putting on a show,” Ker should support the NPP’s proposal to set up a “transitional justice attainment committee” that would be directly overseen by the president.
Independent Legislator May Chin (高金素梅), speaking on behalf of her alliance with the People First Party, blasted the DPP for not having drafted legislation on returning Aboriginal territories.
The DPP agreed to create the Indigenous Historical Justice and Transitional Justice Committee because it operates free of legal oversight, but when it is urged to initiate legislation that would require it to return Aboriginal territories, it resorts to foot-dragging, she said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RSS