A series of activities would be held to help people better understand the nation's path to democratization and remind them of the fruits of these efforts, he said. Memorial activities would include book and photo exhibitions, a concert and the release of commemorative stamps, he added.
Martial law began in 1949 after the Kuomintang government retreated from the Chinese mainland to Taiwan at the end of the Chinese Civil War. It quickly enforced press censorship, prohibited the formation of new political parties and clamped down on various freedoms, such as speech, publication, assembly and association, according to the Chinese-language "Dictionary of Taiwan History" published by the Cabinet-level Council for Cultural Affairs in 2004. The law was eventually lifted by President Chiang Ching-kuo in 1987, which marked one significant step toward the nation's democratization.
President Chen Shui-bian and other Democratic Progressive Party leaders participated in a July 14 sit-in in front of Lungshan Temple in Taipei City to commemorate the May 19, 1986, sit-in organized by political dissidents to pressure the government to abolish martial law, a July 14 Office of the President press release stated.
People seeking abolition of martial law were not just demanding the rights to found political parties and vote but also wanted to tell the dictator that the people were the nation's real masters and the powers usurped by the dictatorship should be completely returned to people, Chen said. The government's lifting of martial law represented reversal of the previous 38 years of wrongdoing and was not any one person's benevolent policy, he added.
Chen said the "May 19 Green Action" was the first time during the martial-law period that people appealed in public against martial law and expressed their demands for democracy, human rights and freedom in the form of a mass mobilization.
The series of commemorative activities was being held to honor all those who laid down their lives in the fight for democracy, and to help future generations recognize past mistakes and avoid making them again, Chen explained.
Chen joined Vice President Lu Hsiu-lien and Chang in opening a photographic exhibition at the Presidential Office July 15, the OOP reported the same day. Works by local photojournalists recording the process of the nation's political and democratic development during the period of martial law were displayed.
"In order to record valuable historic scenes and break away from the biased news reporting by mainstream media under the control of the government, these press photographers carried more than 10 kilograms of camera equipment on their backs, ran through protests and risked their lives to take precious pictures," Chen said.
The president stressed that the DPP had continued its pursuit of democracy even after coming to power in 2000. The party would work even harder to make Taiwan into a "normal, complete and beautiful country," Chen added.
The KMT held a seminar July 10 to commemorate this historic moment, presenting a different perspective on the lifting of martial law, the Chinese-language China Times reported July 15. KMT Vice Chairperson Kuan Chung said in the seminar that Chiang's decision created a new epoch for the nation, for which the people would remember him forever.
According to a special report conducted by the Government Information Office and released July 11, in the first five years of the 1950s, the ruling KMT-led regime on Taiwan executed at least 4,000 to 5,000 people it branded as Chinese Communist spies. These included intellectuals, culturati, workers and farmers. It sentenced a similar number of people to prison with sentences of between 10 years and life. Chang cited other official records from the Ministry of Justice that indicated around 140,000 people were court-martialed in 29,407 cases, the Cabinet press release noted.
Write to Allen Hsu at allenhsu@mail.gio.gov.tw