On the 77th anniversary of the 228 Massacre, usually remembered as the start of the White Terror, it proves important to remember the long path that remains for transitional justice in Taiwan...
On the 76th anniversary of the 228 Massacre, commemorations were held to memorialize the event, traditionally viewed as the start of the decades-long White Terror that followed. This includes many events held annually, such as the Gongsheng Music Festival–the indie rock festival held on Ketagalan Boulevard organized by civil society groups–as well as commemorations by the government. Nevertheless, the anniversary of the 228 Massacre should point to how the pan-Blue camp in Taiwan has generally sought to avoid reckoning with its authoritarian past...
A memorial park to Chiang Ching-kuo in Taipei has become a contested political issue, due to the fact that the park memorializes a dictator. Plans for opening the park were condemned by the Transitional Justice Commission. Nevertheless, this did not prevent President Tsai Ing-wen from speaking at the park’s opening ceremonies, in an unusual move that provoked controversy among many members of the pan-Green camp...
On the 72nd anniversary of the 228 Massacre, it should be clear that a long path remains to be walked to realize transitional justice in Taiwan. This is visible in a number of recent incidents...
Comments last month by KMT chair Wu Den-Yih in defense of former father and son dictators Chiang Kai-Shek and Chiang Ching-Kuo, never mind that the two were mass murderers that ordered the execution of tens of thousands, indicate that little has changed for the KMT in terms of failing to repudiate its authoritarian past...
Given Chiang Kai-Shek’s evident legacy of authoritarianism, why is the KMT fixating on defending Chiang to the degree of political irrationality? The answers lie in KMT political ideology...
