The brazen hypocrisy of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government has once again been on blatant display this week after a revelation by opposition lawmakers and civic organizations that the new edition of high-school textbooks has failed to give proportional mention of — or even simply omitted — historical events, such as the 228 Massacre and the White Terror era.
Many might recall that in recent years at events marking the anniversary of the 228 Massacre — a brutal crackdown by the then-KMT regime starting on Feb. 27, 1947, against tens of thousands of Taiwanese that subsequently ushered in the White Terror era — President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) could be seen wiping away tears during speeches that touted his understanding of victims’ suffering and how his administration’s efforts “to protect human rights and act in accordance with the law will not stop.”
Ma also pledged that he would instruct the Ministry of Education to increase the amount of educational materials dealing with this tragic page in Taiwan’s history to teach the next generation.
However, as the 228 Massacre fails to secure a proportional mention in the new edition of the high-school history textbook, and the phrase “White Terror” has been erased from the new high-school civics textbook, it proves once again that Ma can only talk the talk, but cannot walk the walk.
The ministry’s changes to high-school social studies curriculum guidelines stirred controversy last year. The changes prompted much criticism from academics who accused the ministry of ideological bias, describing the ministry’s design process as opaque and an attempt to push through a “brainwashing” policy that would see the new curriculum reflect a more China-oriented perspective.
And yet, despite a verdict handed down by the Taipei High Administrative Court in February ruling against the ministry’s decision to implement this controversial national high-school curriculum adjustment, the ministry not only implemented it anyway, but also advanced its efforts by blocking out public scrutiny of its ongoing review of the 12-year national education curriculum plan.
According to Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Cheng Li-chun (鄭麗君), the meetings held to discuss the issues have been conducted in an opaque manner, where names of meeting participants were not mentioned and opinions presented during the discussions were not recorded in meeting transcripts.
It is more than regrettable that in Taiwan, which often prides itself as a democracy, such a ministry exists: One that would resort to a “black box,” opaque and despicable approach in leaving out factual historical events such as the White Terror era from children’s civic education.
So much for Ma’s talk about his government’s efforts to uncover the truths about incidents such as the 228 Massacre, his emphasis on how justice can be served and lessons learned, and his pledge to safeguard the nation’s democracy. The truth is that the ministry’s brazen actions — in its insistence on implementing the controversial high-school social science curriculum and its failure to adhere to procedural justice in the discussion of the 12-year national education plan — clearly demonstrate that the Ma administration is in effect attempting to “brainwash” the youth of Taiwan with a China-oriented perspective, while making a mockery of the nation’s democracy.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) has caused havoc with his attempts to overturn the democratic and constitutional order in the legislature. If we look at this devolution from the context of a transition to democracy from authoritarianism in a culturally Chinese sense — that of zhonghua (中華) — then we are playing witness to a servile spirit from a millennia-old form of totalitarianism that is intent on damaging the nation’s hard-won democracy. This servile spirit is ingrained in Chinese culture. About a century ago, Chinese satirist and author Lu Xun (魯迅) saw through the servile nature of
In their New York Times bestseller How Democracies Die, Harvard political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt said that democracies today “may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders. Many government efforts to subvert democracy are ‘legal,’ in the sense that they are approved by the legislature or accepted by the courts. They may even be portrayed as efforts to improve democracy — making the judiciary more efficient, combating corruption, or cleaning up the electoral process.” Moreover, the two authors observe that those who denounce such legal threats to democracy are often “dismissed as exaggerating or
Monday was the 37th anniversary of former president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) death. Chiang — a son of former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), who had implemented party-state rule and martial law in Taiwan — has a complicated legacy. Whether one looks at his time in power in a positive or negative light depends very much on who they are, and what their relationship with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is. Although toward the end of his life Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law and steered Taiwan onto the path of democratization, these changes were forced upon him by internal and external pressures,
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus in the Legislative Yuan has made an internal decision to freeze NT$1.8 billion (US$54.7 million) of the indigenous submarine project’s NT$2 billion budget. This means that up to 90 percent of the budget cannot be utilized. It would only be accessible if the legislature agrees to lift the freeze sometime in the future. However, for Taiwan to construct its own submarines, it must rely on foreign support for several key pieces of equipment and technology. These foreign supporters would also be forced to endure significant pressure, infiltration and influence from Beijing. In other words,
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