True peace is never achieved by bowing to or compromising with authoritarianism, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday.
Lai made the remarks during the unveiling ceremony of the Gikong Presbyterian Church in Taipei as a transitional justice site.
The church was the residence of former democracy advocate Lin I-hsiung (林義雄). It was also where, on Feb. 28, 1980, Lin’s mother and twin daughters were murdered, with his other daughter also severely injured, shortly after he was detained over his involvement in the 1979 Kaohsiung Incident.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Lai said that during last year’s memorial ceremony for the 228 Incident, he asked the Ministry of Culture to initiate a review to designate the church as a transitional justice site, so that it would be preserved and maintained.
He said that since taking office, he has ordered the expedited release of political archives to uncover historical truth, and that, as of February, the National Security Bureau has declassified and transferred more than 140,000 political records to the National Archives Administration.
All files related to the Lin family murders have now been fully declassified, Lai said.
According to Control Yuan investigative reports, the motive behind the murders was to suppress the Tangwai (黨外, “outside the ruling party” or “pro-democracy”) movement and tighten social control.
Investigations throughout the years consistently point to the involvement of the state apparatus and deliberate concealment of the truth under the then-authoritarian rule, Lai said.
“The story of Taiwanese is a story of courage,” Lai said, adding that even after the Lin family murder case, and in the face of brutal intimidation and a high-pressure political climate, Taiwanese only became more determined to strive toward democracy.
Taiwanese did not back down in 1996 when it was warned that holding the nation’s first direct presidential election might trigger an attack by China, he said.
Every single ballot represented a heart that refuses to bow, even under the shadow of missile threats, he added.
“This is the story of Taiwanese, every choice we make defines our future,” he said, adding that Taiwan would not be the democratic nation it is today if it stalled democratic movements after the Lin family murders or folded under Chinese missile threats.
Today, Taiwan continues to face cognitive warfare and various forms of infiltration by an external hostile force, aimed to exploit internal divisions, sow chaos and erode the public’s faith in democracy, Lai said.
Some people believe that compromising with an authoritarian regime could eliminate the need for a strong defense and that peace could be secured through handshakes,” he said.
“However, history has already proven that true peace is never achieved by bowing to authoritarianism,” Lai said.
“In the face of such challenges, our best defense is a clear understanding of history and shared collective memory,” he said. “The clearer the truth of history, the less likely we are to be manipulated; the clearer our shared memories, the less likely we are to be divided.”
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