A chance to promote reconciliation

Taipei Times
http://www.taipeitimes.com

By Huang Luo-feei
Monday, Apr 27, 2009

A global movement to build “peace museums” is taking shape. Concentration camps in Europe have been turned into museums, Cambodia has its Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, and South Korea has prison museums and the Gwangju May 18 Democratization Movement historic park. The preservation of political prisons and places where massacres took place as spaces to reflect on history and commemorate the victims of violence and oppression is a global trend and has created a “dark tourism” industry.

With the rising number of Chinese visitors to Taiwan and increased demand for teaching Taiwan’s history at schools of all levels, human rights memorials do not have to become “mosquito halls,” as rarely frequented buildings are called. Freshmen Discipline Camp and Oasis Villa on Green Island have long been must-see tourist attractions there. Jingmei Human Rights Memorial Park and Green Island Culture Park, both created at sites that witnessed 30,000 political cases involving between 140,000 to 150,000 victims of the White Terror, have been praised by various groups for their value as memorials.

The question — given that Taiwan is a democratic country in pursuit of cross-strait reconciliation — is why the civic groups and political victims who want these sites to be preserved are being accused of tearing society apart and fueling conflict. The answer is the pan-green camp’s short-sighted political manipulation. The pan-green camp has exploited the human rights value of the sites and the nation’s history of political persecution as a tool. By rushing through the creation of the Jingmei Human Rights Memorial Park for its electoral value in 2007, the camp displayed a lack of reflection and deeper understanding of the historical background.

Amid the controversy, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) urged the Council for Cultural Affairs to consider Taiwan’s history, the feelings of inmates and expectations of residents in planning the park. Ma said that revitalizing historical sites need not conflict with preserving their meaning for human rights in Taiwan.

While paying tribute to victims of political persecution at a human rights monument on Green Island on Oct. 14, 2007, Ma said the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) had chosen to face history rather than gloss over or avoid it, and that the party would not allow such a tragedy to happen again.

Amid this controversy, the council should remember the original purpose of building Jingmei Human Rights Memorial Park rather than get caught up over whether to rename it.

The council should also temporarily stop allowing cultural and artist groups to move into spaces that were once used for the detention or sentencing of political prisoners, including the military court, the first court, the detention center, the secret police center and other spaces.

It should then develop a long-term plan with an open attitude to ensure that these spaces are preserved in such a way as to commemorate human rights. As to other spaces in the park, the government could plant grass and attract investment from the cultural sector to meet the calls of residents who want more open spaces and cultural activities.

Facing history is the first step toward reconciliation and museums and parks that commemorate human rights are sites that can touch the hearts of visitors.

If the KMT can accomplish tasks that could not be completed under the previous administration and in doing so openly face the excruciating history of political entanglement between the pro-unification and pro-independence factions during the Martial Law era, it would be the beginning of real social reconciliation.

Former political dissidents and individuals concerned with transitional justice hope Jingmei Human Rights Memorial Park and Green Island Culture Park will be preserved, along with other areas, including the former military prison in Ankeng (安坑), Taipei County, the former correctional center in Tucheng (土城), Taipei County, and the navy guesthouse in Fengshan (鳳山), Kaohsiung County.

This is something the government can do immediately and would have particular significance following the passage of the Act Governing Execution of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (公民與政治權利國際公約及經濟社會文化權利國際公約施行法).

Transitional justice may yet see a comeback; Ma should seize an historic opportunity.

Huang Luo-feei is secretary-general of the Association of Mainlander Taiwanese.

TRANSLATED BY TED YANG