This Monday leaders, politicians, and scholars called for promoting transitional justice and removing symbols of authoritarianism at a press conference for the White Terror Memorial Day.
The White Terror was a period of authoritarian rule and political repression in Taiwan that took place from 1949 to 1992, and included the imprisonment of political dissidents as well as the death of an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 people. Last year the Cabinet approved designating May 19 of each year as the White Terror Memorial Day.
DPP Legislator Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) said the government officially approved the memorial day last year with the aim of reminding Taiwanese people of the 38 years of martial law oppression the nation experienced. Su expressed disappointment at the KMT and TPP coalition regularly using their numerical advantage to manipulate the democratic process, including the recent “anti-martial law, anti-war” referendum campaign.
DPP Legislator Huang Jie (黃捷) claimed that the referendum is an authoritarian act disguised as democracy, also noting the KMT’s unwillingness to take historical responsibility and enact transitional justice.
“519 Action Group” (519行動組合) member and historian Dr. Tai Pao-tsun (戴寶村) noted there are still over 1,000 bronze statues of Chiang Kai-shek and over 200 roads named Zhongzheng Road across Taiwan 50 years following his death. He said that Taiwan has come a long way, becoming one of the most democratic and free countries in the world, yet less than 200 meters away from the Presidential Office is the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, honoring a dictator, which Tai called a great democratic paradox.