Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

Ministry to ask ‘most appropriate decision’ on A-bian

Taipei Times

The Ministry of Justice will ask the Taipei Prison and the Agency of Corrections to make the “most appropriate decision” on former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) treatment in about three weeks’ time, Justice Minister Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫) said yesterday.

The ministry on Monday received a medical report from Taipei Veterans General Hospital, where the imprisoned former president has received treatment since September last year, and would authorize the two institutions to make a final decision on Chen’s future, Tseng told lawmakers in a plenary session yesterday.

Taiwan, China wooing Scotland

Colin Alexander

There may be a diplomatic truce between Taiwan and China, but that has not stopped both sides from seeking to win the affection of the Scottish government. On Sept. 18 next year, Scotland will hold a referendum on whether it is to remain part of the UK or become an independent nation-state, and this has brought increased attention from both diplomatic missions in the capital, Edinburgh.

Since the early 1950s, Taipei and Beijing have competed with each other to win the diplomatic allegiance of countries around the world, with China gaining ascendancy in its campaign after it replaced Taiwan as a member of the UN Security Council in 1971.

Reinterpreting a dictator’s legacy

Huang Chang-ling and Yeh Hung-ling 黃長玲，葉虹靈

The National Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall is running a competition — the CKS Design Competition — to mark the 10th anniversary of the death of Soong Mayling (宋美齡), the third wife of dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石). The objective of the competition is to “re-establish an emotional connection between the public and the CKS Memorial Hall, and to produce an identification with emotional and cultural values.”

As members of a civic group long concerned about transitional justice, we cannot agree with this, and we also strongly object to official attempts to re-interpret the despotic leader who presided over the Martial Law era in Taiwan in this fashion, utterly devoid of any historical or political basis.

Freedom in Taiwan has regressed: DPP chairman

Taipei Times

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang speaks at an event in New Taipei City’s Chinshan District commemorating democracy activist Deng Nan-jung, who killed himself by self-immolation in his Taipei office in 1989 in protest against charges of sedition for his calls on the government to protect freedom expression.
Photo: Yu Chao-fu, Taipei Times

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday said that freedom in Taiwan has regressed since “a repressive government” had returned to power.

Su made the remarks at a ceremony in honor of Deng Nan-jung (鄭南榕), the late democracy advocate who set himself on fire 24 years ago and died in defense of “100 percent freedom of expression.”

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