Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Taxpayers paying tab for illegal hire of Kuo

Huang Di-ying 黃帝穎

On July 14, former Government Information Office (GIO) official Kuo Kuan-ying (郭冠英), who was removed from his post in 2009 after writing political commentary on Web sites that referred to Taiwanese as “descendants of Japanese pirates,” “rednecks” and “country bumpkins,” met the legal age necessary for retirement from the Taiwan Provincial Government, where he was employed as foreign affairs secretary in February.

As a result, Kuo is set to collect a monthly pension of NT$60,000 (US$2,000) funded by taxes paid by the rednecks and country bumpkins he had so much to say about in 2009.

Transitional justice still lacking

Taipei Times Editorial

Tuesday marked the 27th anniversary of the lifting of martial law, which ended the era of authoritarian rule in Taiwan and put the nation on the path of democratic reform. However, as a result of the nation’s failure to institute transitional justice over the course of its democratization, a poisonous residue of authoritarianism lingers on.

The absurdity of this was highlighted this week in a campaign by a group of high-school students from prestigious schools such as Taipei Chenggong High School, Taipei Municipal Jianguo High School, Taipei First Girls’ High School and National Tainan Girls’ Senior High School, who co-produced and released a video calling for the removal of Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) statues from all campuses nationwide.

Ma returning nation to Martial Law era: academics

Taipei Times

The nation is on a dangerous path toward a return to authoritarian rule given the precipitous erosion of freedom and personal rights under the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government led by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), academics and civil liberty groups said on Tuesday.

Taiwan Association for Human Rights (TAHR) chairman Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) said there are more crackdowns and violence by the state apparatus against civilians these days, a clear indication that democracy and human rights protections are sliding backward.

Mao seems to have had last laugh on Chiang

Taipei Times

Chinese history leading up to and immediately after World War II was the story of the Republic of China (ROC) under Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) — which was to rule the later People’s Republic of China (PRC) — under Mao Zedong (毛澤東).

The KMT and CCP were separate entities, albeit organized along similar lines, both being structured on the Leninist party model. The regimes they control continue their shared history even today, 65 years later, the one ghosting the other.

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