Military honor guards are to cease their sentry duty at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei and perform drills at Democracy Boulevard in front of the hall as soon as ministries approve the plan, a Ministry of Culture official said yesterday.
The Executive Yuan on Thursday held a cross-department meeting on transitional justice progress, where the ministry proposed that honor guards withdraw from the hall and relocate to Democracy Boulevard between the hall and the National Theater and Concert Hall for ceremonial duties.
The honor guard would no longer stand guard and ceremonies would be canceled when it rains, following the example of guard mounting at National Martyrs’ Shrine in Taipei, the ministry said.
Photo: CNA
The date of implementation could be decided by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of National Defense, and is not required to be discussed in cross-department meetings on transitional justice to be held in September or October, said an Executive Yuan official who asked to remain anonymous.
The Ministry of National Defense has held negotiations with the Ministry of Culture at least twice and said it would like the honor guards to conduct ceremonies at Liberty Square instead, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said last month at the Legislative Yuan, adding that the matter should be governed by the Ministry of Culture.
The coordination between the ministries is almost complete, and the Ministry of National Defense would fully abide by the Ministry of Culture’s final decision on when to implement the policy, he added.
Deputy Minister of Culture Lee Ching-hui (李靜慧) last month said that the planned timeline would be brought forward in the Executive Yuan’s transitional justice meetings for confirmation.
Minister Without Portfolio Lin Ming-hsin (林明昕), who supervises transitional justice meetings, on Thursday heard reports on transitional justice progress by agencies, including the Ministry of Education and the National Development Council, the anonymous official said.
Honor guards would disengage from the hall and perform ceremonial duties while walking from their duty room to Democracy Boulevard, they said, adding that the guards would return to the room immediately afterward without standing guard.
The official also said that the meeting was a progress report meeting, rather than a meeting of the Executive Yuan’s Transitional Justice Board.
Each ministry or department reported on their progress for non-governmental committee members to examine and give feedback, they said.
Meanwhile, some committee members said there is still a long way to go toward complete transitional justice, as the question of what to do with the CKS Memorial Hall, which is a symbol of authoritarianism, has yet to be addressed, the official said.
A comprehensive arrangement would be made by the Ministry of Culture, rather than just relocating the honor guard, which should not have been stationed at the hall in the first place, the official quoted the committee member as saying, adding that Lin also asked that the Ministry of Culture tackle this problem in meetings.
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