Martial Law End at 20

Today is the twentieth anniversary of the lifting of martial law. Lots of memories and news today about it. ESWN has a great collection of stuff on banned books and songs in Taiwan.

On the twentieth anniversary of the end of martial law in Taiwan, there is an exhibition of almost 200 books that were banned previously. It is one thing for the Little Red Book (=The Sayings of Chairman Mao) to be banned in Taiwan (note: it is sold openly today), but the list of books involve some wildly hilarious selections. The problem is the same one with the Chengdu newspaper ad taken out for the mothers of the June 4th victims in China -- the censors or gatekeepers are uninformed because they were not taught about what to look for. In retrospect, it also seemed obvious that demand for a book is stimulated when it is known to be banned, which is what is happening in mainland China today as well.

....When writer Chen Ying-chen (陳映真) was arrested, the interrogator asked him: "Why do you have the books of Mark Twain (馬克吐溫)?" and "Isn't Mark Twain the brother of Marx (馬克思)?"

Meanwhile the Taiwan News has an Op-Ed that describes the ongoing failure of Taiwan society to come to grips with the problems caused by 50 years of political oppression:

Despite high expectations, the transition to DPP administration in May 2000 has fallen far short of initial hopes of fast progress to overcome achieve "transitional justice" for the tens or even hundreds of thousands of victims of KMT oppression under martial law, and to construct a genuinely democratic and clean political system.

Besides the inexperience and frequent political misjudgement of President Chen and other DPP leaders, the main obstacle remains the former authoritarian party, which has used its possession of "party assets" and other direct and indirect resources to retain control over the Legislature, and to block a wide range of reforms in the fields of human rights, anti-corruption, politics, social welfare, law and other spheres.

Indeed, far from marking a clear division between "authoritarianism" and "democracy," Taiwan has experienced a "gradual" process of democratization in which the former authoritarian party-state remains a substantive resource and influence far out of proportion to its formal status as one of many political parties.

The most concrete and symbolic sign of the KMT's special character is its continued possession of tens of billions in New Taiwan dollars of "ill-gotten" party assets which were basically stolen from the state or from citizens during its authoritarian rule.

The laments of KMT leaders, such as its former chairman and current presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou, over the continued criticism of the former ruling party for its past authoritarianism, rampant violations of human rights, institutional corruption and media domination, are thus truly hypocritical.

The drive by Taiwan democrats and martial law victims to "clarify and settle accounts" with the KMT will continue every day that the KMT persists in denying or downplaying its record of human rights abuse and dictatorship, continues to benefit from its stolen party assets and use of such resources to bolster its political clout and refuses to divest its "special character" as a "party-state." Instead, as part of its drive to "win back Taiwan," the KMT is clearly attempting to restore aspects of its past "special" position or ideological dominance.

Examples include Taipei City's "one course, one textbook" policy which would end educational pluralism, the arrogant presumption of the pan-KMT controlled Referendum Review Committee to veto in place of the Taiwan electorate, a proposed referendum on whether to apply for United Nations membership under the name of "Taiwan," the KMT's control over the National Communications Commission to carry out transfers of KMT-owned China Television Corp and the Broadcasting Corp of China into hands of ideologically friendly investors.

The Taiwan News hits exactly the right note. Few now remember that when martial law was lifted the government immediately passed a national security law that was martial law redux in all but name. Although martial law was lifted in 1987, the blacklist program continued until 1992, keeping democracy activists abroad out of the island. Though the number of political prisoners dropped dramatically, a number of major figures remained jailed under the regime, including Shih Ming-te. Antonio Chiang, national policy advisor to President Chen, editor of the Liberty Times, saw his publications banned more than a dozen times between 1987 and 1988. In April of 1988 the National Security Bureau ordered the burning of Lei Chen's memoirs, even though the government had promised to return them to his wife, who was a life member of the Control Yuan and a stalwart KMT member. In late 1988 the government attempted to place limits on foreign journalists. Clearly the government thought that it could engage in reality management while carrying on as before. It failed.

The new laws and repression failed, for many reasons. The rising tide of openness swamped the government's attempts to maintain control. The reactionary pro-authoritarian forces in the government, led by Hau Pei-tsun, the father of the current Taipei mayor, were defeated and broken by Lee Teng-hui., who more than any single person was responsible for midwifing the democracy here. By 1993 almost everyone political was out of prison, elections were being held, and Taiwan was on its way. As the Taiwan News notes, we're not there yet -- the living and the dead cry out for justice, and many in high places should be in prison instead of in the limelight -- but I have faith that the future still holds great promise for the island's democratic development.

UPDATE: Caroline Gluck of the BBC has an excellent article on the martial law revocation, even catching that the government passed a National Security Law to continue the oppression under another name.

[Taiwan] [KMT]