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"Transitional Justice" to Become the DPP's Ladder for New Authoritarianism

icon2017/12/08
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 "Transitional Justice" to Become the DPP's Ladder for New Authoritarianism

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

December 6, 2017

 Translation of an Excerpt

 

While the protests against the revisions to the "Labor Standards Act" are still alive, the DPP immediately launched a battle for enacting the bill titled “Statute Governing the Promotion of Transformational Justice” and has completed it in the third reading. This is the DPP's usual tactic: earlier it lured the KMT to abandon its opposition to the revision of the Labor Standards Act in exchange for the enactment of this bill, but to no avail. Suddenly, in a high-handed vendetta, it turned its guns in order to shift the focus of public grievances. The problem is, is the DPP truly in pursuit of transformational justice? Or is it just utilizing the pretext of "justice" to purge rivals and using it as a ladder to dictatorial power for itself?

 

Leaving aside much injustice and unfairness in the current society, the DPP repeatedly digs dirt from historical rubbish, claiming that it could scavenge gold. This is the greatest contradiction for the Tsai government and the DPP. Since President Tsai came to office, she has repeatedly vowed to promote "Transformational Justice," while measures to de-Chiang Kai-shek have never stopped. After the “successful battle” of the Commission on Ill-gotten Party Assets, the bill titled “Statute Governing the Promotion of Transformational Justice,” which had been pigeonholed for more than a year, suddenly turned up from the freezer, and served anew on the table after being sautéed; the purpose was, of course, to shift the focus from its lackluster performance of governance. Controversies over the recent minesweepers case, Labor Standards Act revisions, and air pollution caused by coal-burning have never ended, causing public grievances everywhere, while next year’s elections are drawing near. The DPP obviously believes that returning to the path of confrontations is the best option. What follows will inevitable be incessant attacks.

 

It would be fine if the “Statute Governing the Promotion of Transformational Justice” truly aimed at justice, but the DPP deliberately excluded the history of the oppression of aborigines and “comfort women” during Japanese colonial rule, concentrating on purging the KMT, while we cannot detect any proactive approaches for promoting social reconciliation. This is a law akin to a bait-and-switch scam. More seriously, the “Statute Governing the Promotion of Transformational Justice” claims to redress the illegal acts during the era of authoritarian rule, and the DPP, however, uses it to stand on the stage of authoritarianism, facing history, people and society with a haughty attitude, exhibiting blatantly its totalitarianism.

 

This authoritarian direction is not proceeding quietly and has no intention of being carried out in a low key, but blatantly undertakes destruction and challenge against the existing foundation for freedom and democracy. As soon as the Tsai government came to office, it exerted great efforts to push for the enactment of a bill titled "Homeland Security Act," then the Cabinet pushed for the enactment of a bill titled the "Information-Communications Security Management Act." The bills, if passed, would not only seriously undermine the rights and interests of the people, but also contains fuzzy definitions which would allow the expansion of executive power, thus usurping the independent power of the judiciary.

 

In the past year and a half, the public have witnessed the Cabinet’s incompetence in the flip-flopping of the Labor Standards Act revisions, witnessed the government’s propensity for grandeur and seeking great achievements, witnessed the cover-up of dishonesty in the high-echelons from the minesweepers case, and witnessed the government's authoritarian mentality from the "Homeland Security Bill," the “Statute Governing Ill-gotten Party Assets” and the “Statute Governing the Promotion of Transformational Justice.” Leaving aside much injustice before her eyes, President Tsai, however, wants to delve into history to find justice, the pie in the sky she herself drew. Does she believe that the land she rules was the Taiwan during the Cold War era?

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