20120315 EDITORIAL: Chiang statues belie Ma’s sincerity

EDITORIAL: Chiang statues belie Ma’s sincerity

How sincere could a national leader’s apology for the government’s past violent crackdown on civilians be when statues of the main instigator of the repression greet the public day in and day out?

However illogical and shocking it may sound, such absurdity is what has been taking place in Taiwan for the past six decades. As recently as late last month when President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), marking the anniversary of the 228 Incident, again offered an apology for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime’s brutal and bloody crackdown on civilians in what became known as the 228 Massacre, statues honoring Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) — the main culprit of the massacre — stood just as proud as ever in all corners of Taiwan.

This dissonance was highlighted when a group at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) on Feb. 28 daubed the area around the statue of Chiang on campus with red paint and covered the statue with the names of massacre victims to create an art installation symbolizing the event.

Saying that the aim was to remind fellow students and faculty of the KMT-perpetrated violence and to show how the KMT’s repression had yet to fully disappear, the students should be acknowledged for demonstrating a clear grasp of history and understanding the importance of transitional justice.

Instead, school officials, who initially said they respected the students’ freedom of expression, are now considering disciplinary measures for the students on the grounds that they had vandalized school property.

The regrettable response by NCKU shows not only the school authorities’ attempt to use administrative measures to rein in the students’ rights to free expression and campus space, but on a larger scale, it exposes how little transitional justice is being implemented in the country from the bottom up.

How do we expect the nation’s educators to teach the youth the true values of democracy and transitional justice when statues of a dictator stand tall in virtually every school and college campus, if not every public park and railway station?

How does Ma expect the public — in particular victims of the massacre and White Terror era — to take his apologies seriously when the taint of totalitarian worship permeates all corners of the country, from the statues and coins bearing Chiang’s image to streets named after him?

The truth is that these statues of Chiang insult not only the sacrifices made by the country’s many democracy pioneers, but their existence also serves as a daily added agony to victims of the White Terror and their families.

In view of the perfunctory mindset displayed by the NCKU authorities and the government with regard to efforts to bring about transitional justice, and empty words about implementing it, it is little wonder that ignorance and distorted values are widespread. For example, we have seen how Chiang’s image has been made into “cute” little merchandising figurines, showing him all smiles like a benevolent grandfather.

Taiwan’s democracy has often been touted as a success story and an example for the rest of Asia to follow, but this latest incident with the NCKU students suggests it is still a fragile democracy where the poisonous stain of authoritarianism remains and transitional justice is lacking in many areas.