Paradoxical Promotion of the Transformational Justice View of History

  Paradoxical Promotion of the Transformational Justice View of History

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

December 11, 2017

 Translation of an Excerpt

Proclaiming to fully implement "transformational justice," the DPP, relying on its overwhelming majority in the Legislative Yuan, forcibly passed a bill titled “Statute Governing the Promotion of Transformational Justice.” Whether this statute will bring about justice is not yet known, its approach and definitions of promoting transformation is a hodge-podge to the point of being beyond imagination.

The "DPP view of history" as exhibited in the Statute can only be described as "paradoxical." The greatest problem of the peculiar view of history in the Statute is that it leads to "unknown subjects." If the subject is the “land,” then it should start from the restoration of Taiwan to the government of the Republic of China [October 25, 1945]; if the subject is the "constitutional order," then it should start with Constitutional Day [December 25, 1946]; if the DPP believes that the subject is infringement under "authoritarian rule," then it should start with the promulgation of the Provisional Articles of the Constitution [May 10, 1948], or the date of the proclamation of "martial law" rule [May 19, 1949]. The DPP has wanted from the very beginning to make the laws and regulaations related to the authoritarian rule a smorgasbord; it doesn’t know, however, that this smorgasbord is utterly inedible.

A similar problem also exists in the "Statute Governing the Handling of Ill-gotten Party Assets." However, this latter statute is principally targeting the KMT and the extent is relatively limited; while the scope of the Statute Governing the Promotion of Transformational Justice” includes the victims of the authoritarian era, the victimizers, holders of relevant evidence and materials, etcetera, involving an extensive range. Under these circumstances, the "Commission on Promoting Transformational Justice” to be established under the “Statute Governing the Promotion of Transformational Justice” possesses enormous room for administrative discretion, and may even, in the name of transformational justice, deprived citizens of their private assets that are deemed as "materials and evidence of authoritative rule.” Concentrating executive, legislative and judicial powers in one body, it is possible that all people may be infringed. The "Commission on Promoting Transformational Justice” will inevitably become a "Frankenstein’s monster for promoting transformation."

Many in the DPP are law graduates. It is surprising and shocking that such a law deviating from basic legal knowledge has been written. Moreover, for such a vital bill, the executive branch, however, presented no counterpart bill. This underscores not the Tsai government’s ignorance but the DPP’s greed and delirium of being carried away. For its own political interests, it has thrown away democracy and the rule of law. Instances of such violations of democracy and the rule of law on the part of the DPP are rampant; besides being ridiculed as "pro-capitalist party," it has also been derided as the “democratic retrogressive party."

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