Cleaning up Chiang

Two years ago Time reported on the controversy in Spain over rehabilitating the Valley of the Fallen, the huge memorial 50 km from Madrid that is the final resting place of Franco.

After igniting a civil war in 1936 when he led a coup against Spain's democratically elected government, Franco and his Nationalist forces — aided by Germany and Italy — finally prevailed in 1939. For the next 36 years, Franco ruled the country; he sent political prisoners to concentration camps and homosexuals to mental asylums, and women were not allowed to work without the permission of their husbands or fathers. Speaking out — for democracy or against the regime — was hazardous to your health.

Even after Franco's death in 1975, parties across the political spectrum maintained a "pact of silence" about the Civil War and decades of dictatorship to ensure, they said, a peaceful transition to representative government. But after watching their democracy survive tests ranging from the legalization of divorce to the Madrid bombings, Spaniards are ready to break that silence. And the Valley of the Fallen is one of the places where their voices echo loudest. "The 'pact of silence' was necessary for the transition to democracy," says José María Pedreño, president of Forum for Memory, an organization dedicated to identifying killed or missing opponents of Franco. "But it meant that our democracy was fundamentally flawed, resting on the impunity of Franco's regime. It had to change."

Commissioned by and with design input from Franco, the Valley of the Fallen was built at least in part through the forced labor of political prisoners. Soldiers from both sides of Spain's Civil War — Franco's Nationalists and the defeated Republicans — are interred there, but only Francoists treat the site as a shrine. Last November, the Catalan Green party (icv) suggested that the basilica be transformed into a "center for interpretation" to inform visitors about the repression and suffering inflicted by Franco's regime. "It's not normal for a democratic society to have failed to resolve this issue," says icv vice president Jaume Bosch. "Auschwitz has been converted into a learning center; Argentina has turned its torture chambers into places for explanation. Too many years have passed for us simply to leave the Valley as the Franco regime left it." Since the icv floated the idea, more than 30 human-rights groups have expressed support for it.

The last statue of Franco was removed from Madrid a while back. There is no memorial to Mussolini in Rome, nor is there a monument to Hitler -- arguably the most important politician of the 20th century -- in the heart of Berlin. But in Taipei the dictator Chiang Kai-shek, a mass murderer on a historical scale, has an enormous memorial not far from the Presidential Palace, the final realization of the personality cult created by the KMT in the martial law period. And like Franco, a core of Chiang's right-wing supporters remain, who downplay his evil, and take revenge on those who attempt to do what is normal in other democratic countries: stop treating the killers like heroes.

Yesterday news organizations were reporting that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) had expelled the defense minister(BBC)(Taipei Times' more detailed report), Lee Jye, from the party. His membership was revoked because he had gone along with the DPP's campaign to remove the statues of Chiang Kai-shek from military institutions across the island...

Mr Lee had complied with a government order for statues of Mr Chiang to be removed from military premises.

The ruling DPP party says that the statues represent authoritarian rule and are not in keeping with democracy.

But the KMT says the government is trying to eradicate history and cut off Taiwan's Chinese heritage.

The dispute highlights a growing debate about Mr Chiang's legacy in Taiwan.

The BBC forgot to give the full name of the KMT -- Chinese Nationalist Party -- which would have helped its readers understand why the KMT might frame removal of Chiang's statue as "desinicization" -- pro-China code for establishing an independent Taiwanese identity. This claim is largely aimed at manifestations of the KMT's peculiar identity claims -- Taiwan continues to celebrate Chinese holidays, speak Chinese languages, eat Chinese foods, and refer to Chinese culture when assessing their own behavior. The fact that both the KMT and the government of China make exactly the same claims, using the codeword "desinicization" simply shows how closely those two are working together. Of course, the KMT might have a more practical goal in delaying the normalization of Taiwan's democracy: in Italy and Germany, the parties of Mussolini and Hitler are banned.

Meanwhile the struggle to normalize Taiwan goes on. Mayor Hau of Taipei, whose father Hau Pei-tsun was one of the key politicians in the KMT's opposition to democratization, is leading the fight to prevent the DPP from renaming the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial, temporarily designating the site a heritage site to prevent alteration.

Pan-green Taipei city councilors accused Hau, son of former premier and Chiang loyalist Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村), of trying to protect Chiang.

"As the hall is less than 30 years old, it cannot be recognized as a historical monument," said Taipei City Councilor Chien Yu-yen (簡余晏), a Taiwan Solidarity Union member.

Councilor Lee Ching-feng (李慶鋒), a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member, urged the city government not to defend "Chiang Kai-shek's personal temple."

Lee Yong-ping acknowledged that the hall, which was opened in 1980, was the newest building to be evaluated for its cultural and historical significance.

But he said that age was not the only determining factor. He added that the hall had been made a "temporary monument" to protect it during the evaluation period.

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus said it supported the city government's decision.

KMT Legislator Lee Ching-an (李慶安) said the Taipei City Government had been forced to take "emergency measures" to protect the memorial.

The DPP caucus, however, said the measure was inappropriate and urged the city government not to stifle public debate.

Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said the memorial's outer walls must be torn down because they symbolized the gap between the dictator and the public.

Under former Mayor Ma Ying-jeou the city formulated plans to tear down the 200 year old walls of a famous local Confucian Temple, leading to charges of rank hypocrisy for its objection to tearing down the walls of the memorial, dedicated in.....1980.

Renaming the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial and eliminating his statues from public areas are important steps Taiwan needs to take in order to come to terms with the poisonous legacy and personality cult of a murderous dictator.

[Taiwan] [China] [DPP] [Democracy] [Hau Lung-bin] [KMT] [Ma Ying-jeou]