Former Political Prisoner Reflects on End of Martial Law in Taiwan

TaiwanPlus News

Tuesday marks 38 years since the lifting of martial law in 1987, a monumental day in Taiwan’s democratic history. It was one of the key events in the country's transition from dictatorship to democracy. But the country's democratic milestones could not have been reached without the resilience of people like former political prisoner Fred Chin, who was interned for 12 years during the martial law era.   Correction: A previous version of this report stated that 26 KMT lawmakers are up for a recall vote in July. The correct number is 24, while recall votes for at least two more lawmakers are set for late August. A new version has been uploaded reflecting this.

Transcript

00:00so this is my vip room

00:07fred chin spent a year and a half in this cell for a crime he didn't commit

00:12in 1971 aged just 21 he was a malaysian student in taiwan when he became accused of bombing a u.s

00:19government office he would go on to spend 12 years in prison detained and tortured first here at the

00:25jingmei detention center in new taipei then in taiwan's notorious jail for political prisoners

00:31on green island to this day he still doesn't know why he was singled out sometime i will

00:39step here i will stand here and look out through the window i try to find some explanation why

00:50i was in this room chin was just one of many people targeted by the nationalist guo mingdan

00:58government led by chan kai-shek which had taken over taiwan at the end of world war ii in 1945.

01:05martial law was declared in 1949 and it would not be lifted for nearly 40 years it remains a dark

01:12period of repression in taiwan's history often referred to as the white terror where as many

01:17as 200 000 people were imprisoned martial law was finally lifted on july 15th 1987.

01:25it was a very brutal authoritarian form of martial law many thousands of dissidents were arrested and

01:34and many were killed and so the the the symbolic end of that moment even though there were many events

01:42that led up to it represented a really important um step in taiwan's democratization um probably the

01:51single most important symbolic moment but while that date was important chin says it wasn't until

01:58five years later in 1992 when further legal reforms were made that political prisoners like

02:04himself were truly free to speak out without fear of repercussions and that the white terror was

02:10officially over although the memories still haunt him chin continues to lead tours through the former

02:17detention center where he was once held now a memorial park etched into the walls here over 12 000

02:24names of confirmed victims of political persecution including his own for chin revisiting these painful

02:31times is essential to safeguarding taiwan's hard-won democracy if you don't see the importance

02:39of remembering the past if you just enjoy the democracy and freedom if you don't pay attention to preserve it

02:50then the tragedies in the past could possibly happen and will occur in any time in the future

03:002025 marks 38 years since the end of 38 years of martial law taiwan has been free of military rule for as long as

03:07it's spent under it and in the years since taiwan has checked off the milestones of its democratic

03:13development the legalization of other political parties like the now ruling democratic progressive

03:18party the first direct presidential election the first peaceful transfer of political power all driven

03:25by social activism in opposition to single-party authoritarian rule in today's taiwan officials are freely elected

03:33and may be freely removed if voters are unhappy with them as can be seen in the current mass recall

03:38movement which is targeting the seats of dozens of lawmakers obviously with the end of martial law

03:43and the constitutional reform in the early 1990s and all of the political uh the changes and

03:50institutional changes that were enabled by the end of martial law that's created the political conditions

03:56where recalls um can uh can happen um i think you can understand the current movement in the long

04:04history of social movement activism um so it is part of that long history and clearly the dpp has tried

04:10to locate it within that history today's guorming dang now a democratic party and currently in the

04:15opposition sees things differently it says it's now being persecuted as all 26 legislators up for recalls so

04:23far this summer are from the kmt it's a reminder that the traumatic legacy of martial law still echoes

04:29across taiwan's political landscape what is certain is that without the country's hard-won freedoms and

04:35the resilience of survivors like fred chin the right of taiwanese people to choose and recall their

04:40leaders and representatives wouldn't be part of today's democratic reality howard chang alex chen energy

04:47the right of taiwanese world for taiwan plus

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