Efforts must be made to remove the statues of former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and stop the worship of a dictator responsible for the deaths of many Taiwanese, a group of White Terror era victims said yesterday.
The group opposed a proposal to place an iron cage over Chiang’s bronze statue at Taipei’s Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.
The Transitional Justice Commission should push ahead with its plan to take down the 6.3m statue and move it to the Cihu Mausoleum in Taoyuan’s Dasi District (大溪), former political prisoner Tsai Kuan-yu (蔡寬裕) said.
Photo: CNA
“This has been enshrined in law, so the government must remove all symbols of authoritarianism that are still in place,” said Tsai, the honorary chairman of the Taiwan Association for the Care of the Victims of Political Persecution During the Martial Law Period.
Tsai, now in his 80s, was targeted by the KMT’s persecution of dissidents and civil liberty advocates. He was imprisoned twice from the 1960s to the 1970s, spending a total of 13 years in prison.
Article 5 of the Act on Promoting Transitional Justice (促進轉型正義條例), passed by the legislature in 2017, stipulates that “symbols appearing in public buildings or places that commemorate or express nostalgia for authoritarian rulers shall be removed, renamed, or dealt with in some other way,” Tsai said.
“We have pressed the demand to remake Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall as part of the transitional justice process and get rid of the statue. Such a move has basis in the law and therefore should be implemented soon, but we only see inaction and more delays,” he said.
Several consultation meetings were held over the past two months with officials from the Ministry of Culture department that manages the memorial hall, and several rounds of discussions were held with commission officials, Tsai said.
“Our organization and other groups representing the victims of past political persecution have voiced their recommendations. We also spoke directly with the current and former minister of culture,” Tsai added.
“They have our recommendations and should take action to implement them... It is painful to see Taiwan undergoing democratization for three decades and people still having a personality cult for the worship of a dictator,” he said.
Only when the statue is removed from the memorial hall can the nation close this chapter of its history, Tsai said.
“If not, the malevolence of the past authoritarian regime and the personality cult will remain alive, and our society will waste time squabbling over it year after year,” he said.
Regarding the proposal to place an iron cage on the statue, Tsai said: “We disagree with such ways to cast aspersion on the statue... The best way is to remove it, without leaving a trace, which should end all disputes over the issue.”
Meanwhile, the Taiwan 228 Care Association has launched a petition to terminate all government funding for ceremonial activities at the memorial hall, and to have Chiang’s descendants pay for the statue’s care.
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