The Taiwan Statebuilding Party yesterday called for the government to create a Taiwanese national day and drop holidays celebrating the Republic of China (ROC), while the Taiwan Republic Office called for a referendum to choose a date to hold a national day for Taiwan.
Double Ten National Day was created by the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime to celebrate the Oct. 10, 1911, Wuchang Uprising against the Qing Dynasty, which preceded the founding of the ROC, Taiwan Statebuilding Party secretary-general Wang Hsing-huan (王興煥) said.
“It is a tragedy to celebrate Double Ten National Day, which was imposed by force by the KMT dictatorship, indoctrinating Taiwanese to submit to the colonial ROC regime and resulting in the current confusion of identifying Taiwan with the foreign Chinese nation-state,” he said. “But it is not the ‘national day’ for Taiwanese, as there is no nationhood for Taiwan yet.”
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
“Successive governments in Taiwan have taken to celebrating Double Ten National Day each year to re-enforce ROC colonial rule over the subjugated people,” he added.
The Taiwan Statebuilding Party also disagrees with the Democratic Progressive Party’s efforts to remove the term ROC from holiday signage and promotion materials by using “Taiwan National Day” instead, Wang said.
“This is not transitional justice,” he said, adding that the DPP is impeding efforts to pursue Taiwan’s national identity and oust the remnants of the ROC colonial regime.
Photo provided by Taiwan Republic Office media release
Taiwan needs to do away with Double Ten National Day celebrations, and phase out the ROC political framework, he said.
“Forcing Taiwan inside the constraints of the ROC regime is not the right way to go,” he added.
Separately, members of the Taiwan Republic Office and allied pro-Taiwanese independence groups protested on Ketagalan Boulevard outside a cordoned off area in front of the Presidential Office Building during a Double Ten National Day ceremony yesterday morning.
The protesters said that as the holiday commemorated the Wuchang Uprising, when Taiwan was under Japanese colonial rule, it had nothing to do with Taiwan.
Instead, a new national holiday should be created and a date relevant to Taiwan’s history should be decided by voters through a referendum.
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