The transitional justice act was finally passed.
The act is aimed at addressing injustices perpetrated by then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government between Aug. 15, 1945, when the Japanese government announced it had surrendered, to Nov. 6, 1992, when the Period of National Mobilization against Communist Rebellion was ended in Kinmen and Lienchiang counties.The Act thus covers the actual period of martial law in Taiwan. It is often forgotten that after martial law was "lifted" in 1987 the government immediately promulgated a new national security law that was martial law in all but name. Dissidents remained in jail until 1993.
A nine-member Transitional Justice Promotion Committee is to be created, to be overseen by the Executive Yuan, with its chairman nominated by the premier and approved by at least half of the members of the Legislative Yuan.
The committee is also to address and utilize ill-gotten political party assets, but its purview will not include items already covered by the Act Governing the Handling of Ill-gotten Properties by Political Parties and Their Affiliate Organizations (政黨及其附隨組織不當取得財產處理).
The new act states that data unconstitutionally seized during the authoritarian era are to be collated and archived and made available for research and educational purposes as long as people mentioned in the data have their privacy and their freedom of communication protected.
The land justice issues involving aboriginal lands were separated out from this bill for later consideration. They are likely to be highly contentious. Taiwan is just beginning to wrestle with the fact that it is a settler society with all the evils and abuses that entails.
Meanwhile the KMT is so broke it is levying a special tax on members to raise funds. This is why I expect in 2020 Terry Gou has a good shot at the KMT Presidential candidacy, because he is the only possibility who can fund his own election campaign.
Don't miss Ian Rowen's great research piece on transitional justice in Taiwan, which is open access. A piece at Taiwan Sentinel argues transitional justice must be institutionalized in order for it to be successful.
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Daily Links:
- New Southbound Policy scores win in Phils. Poor China! Worked so hard to buy the Philippines, but as a snarky friend put it, what can Beijing do when the countries they buy don't stay bought?
- Expert argues DPP unlikely to see fallout from labor laws. Young people demanding overtime because pay is crap
- Hoover: US needs multilateral alliance system in Asia
- The bluster is strong with this one: Chinese diplomat threatens war if US Navy makes port visit to Taiwan. Taiwan calls for peace in response.
- Haha. Tasmania compared to Taiwan
- Taiwan, Submarines, and Competitive Strategies for US-China Competition
- More on Subs and Taiwan from the National Interest
- The Untapped potential for US-Taiwan trade relations
- China's Playbook for Conquering Taiwan
- Could a Fukushima-style accident happen in Taiwan? Yes of course.
- It's been a year since the Trump-Tsai call and nothing happened, of course. Nikki Alsford's great piece is still relevant today. And my first commentary on it is also as relevant as ever.
[Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!
1 comment:
Submarines? As the article notes, they would be sitting ducks while under construction.
Surely the way of the future is unmanned underwater drones. Either loaded with multiple torpedoes, or ones that can self-destruct, directly underneath naughty invading ships.
The fleet could just languish quietly in the deep ocean. No need for supplies of oxygen, food, water, etc. No morale problems.
Also, much more bang for the buck, one would imagine.
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