The Ministry of National Defense and subordinate units have resisted the government’s attempts to remove symbols of Taiwan’s authoritarian past, despite state subsidies for the task, Executive Yuan officials told a meeting of the Internal Administration Committee at the legislature in Taipei on Monday.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Jie (黃捷) accused the Cabinet of inaction on a mandate to remove statues of and memorials to Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) from public spaces.
The government provides up to NT$100,000 per case for labor and other expenses to remove such items, but progress is lacking, Huang said, adding that only 165 of the 934 listed Chiang statues in public spaces had been removed, or less than 20 percent.
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“The Executive Yuan should be more proactive on this matter and should make a decision on the fate of Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall,” she said.
She also referenced the work of Chen Chu (陳菊) of the DPP in her time as Kaohsiung mayor.
“Chen in 2007 made changes to the city’s Chiang Kai-shek Culture Center, renaming it the Kaohsiung Cultural Center, and removed Chiang’s statue from the site,” Huang said. “Kaohsiung did it 17 years ago ... while nothing has been done at Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei to this day.”
The Executive Yuan’s Department of Human Rights and Transitional Justice said that a special task force has been set up under the supervision of the vice premier to plan and gather feedback regarding the Taipei site.
However, the task force has received mixed opinions from the public on whether to dismantle the hall or allow it to remain with changes to highlight transitional justice, department Deputy Director-General Shih Pu (石樸) said.
“One main area of resistance is from the defense ministry, as its units say they need discipline and leadership to supervise troops,” Shih said. “The ministry has said it needs to take into account military tradition.”
The minister of national defense last week said it was a military tradition to honor Chiang, who founded its training academies in China and Taiwan, adding that he considered military sites to be private property, the South China Morning Post reported.
Huang said that Chiang’s status must be removed from the Taipei site, including the military police unit that provides protection services for the memorial, with daily changings of the guard.
“Now that the government has declared May 19 to be White Terror Memorial Day, we must race against time for transitional justice and pick up the pace on the decision of what to do with the Chiang memorial in Taipei,” Huang said.
DPP Legislator Chang Hung-lu (張宏陸) said that action needs to be accelerated to recover “ill-gotten party assets” and put them to proper use, especially for transitional justice, and to provide compensation for people affected by the White Terror and the families of those who died.
Additional reporting by the Guardian
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