Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: Lai Ching-te/Facebook
THE KMT HAS suggested that it may now call for two national referendums against the DPP.
The first referendum, which the KMT had previously announced, will be about capital punishment in Taiwan. Capital punishment remains on the books in Taiwan, though the scope of capital punishment was narrowed by a Constitutional Court ruling in September.
The last time someone was executed in Taiwan was in January. The Lai administration very likely ordered the execution with the view that this would demonstrate to the public that capital punishment still occurs in Taiwan.
Namely, though capital punishment is still legal according to the Constitutional Court ruling, the KMT has sought to frame the ruling as the de facto abolition of capital punishment. Capital punishment remains widely supported in Taiwan, as survey after survey conducted by anti-death penalty groups has shown. Specifically, capital punishment is viewed by the public as a deterrent to violent crime.
The new proposal for a referendum is against martial law. The KMT has sought to frame a slew of new measures introduced by the Lai administration as equivalent to declaring martial law.
The most controversial of the measures introduced by Lai was reintroducing military courts for espionage cases. The abolition of military courts is relatively recent in Taiwan, occurring only in 2013 under the Ma administration in a similar timeframe to when the military draft was lowered to four months from one year in 2012. But the Lai administration’s argument for reintroducing military courts is that civilian courts have been too light on espionage cases.
The KMT’s proposed text for the referendum is: “Given that President Lai has designated China a foreign hostile force, placing cross-strait relations in a quasi-war state, do you support following Ukraine’s example by implementing martial law and reinstating military tribunals?”
KMT attack ad on Lai Ching-te. Photo credit: KMT/Facebook
The KMT may be leaning into the claim that the Lai administration’s actions, in drawing too close to the US, threaten to invite retaliation from China. The implicit comparison is that Ukraine invited retaliation from Russia by becoming too close to NATO. That the KMT claims this in the present about the Russia-Ukraine conflict indicates to what extent the KMT’s political arguments draw from global disinformation about Russia and Ukraine.
At the same time, the implicit comparison is also to South Korea, with regards to President Yoon Suk Seol’s abortive declaration of martial law. After the declaration, the DPP Legislative Caucus’ social media account initially posted in support of martial law, and drew comparison to threats faced by Taiwan. This was quickly deleted by a post disavowing martial law and emphasizing that it was once the KMT that kept Taiwan in the longest martial law period, as well as that the DPP emerged from the political resistance against the KMT.
The DPP has since held press conference after press conference apologizing for the post. Yet the KMT seized upon the occasion to accuse the DPP of seeking to return Taiwan to a state of authoritarianism, never mind that it is the KMT that was the party that declared martial law, and which is the political party in Taiwan that is friendly with the CCP, the direct military threat to Taiwan’s contemporary democratic freedoms.
A referendum on martial law, then, will serve to test the historical memory of the authoritarian period. A phenomenon seen regionally has been that of authoritarian nostalgia, in which the heirs of former authoritarian leaders come to power because of nostalgia for a past period of authoritarianism–by not only those who experienced it but may have not directly been victims, but also by young people that never experienced authoritarianism, and have come to view it retroactively in a positive light.
Taiwan has arguably only escaped such trends because of rising Taiwanese identity, as well as that Taiwan’s past authoritarianism has come to be associated with today’s China. Yet one notes how the application of capital punishment is a practice that dates back to the authoritarian period. Many of the individuals currently on death row were arraigned on lacking evidence, because of the police seeking to blame unrelated individuals for unsolved crimes during the authoritarian period. In this sense, what will be put to vote is the values of past authoritarianism in Taiwan–and unfortunately, Taiwan may not have moved back that in some respect.
At present, Premier Cho Jung-tai of the Lai administration has stated that the government will publicize its proposal for military courts within one month, that this will be communicated to the legislature, and that the scope of application is only for espionage cases. Through transparency and communication with the public, the DPP can avoid the perception that its actions are authoritarian, but the KMT base is still likely to militate against the DPP over the issue.