President Chen Shui-bian attended the 20th anniversary celebrations of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on September 28th. President Chen said that twenty years ago, the founding of the DPP meant that the Taiwanese started to get rid of the authoritarian regime. In the past years, Taiwan has put the armed forces under the government and banned any political activities in campus, administrative agencies and judicial departments. However, President Chen said in his speech, Taiwan still has to tackle with the problems of transitional justice by three approaches.
The first approach is to amend the Constitution. President Chen said that the existing Constitution symbolizes the old-fashioned ideology created without the participation of the Taiwanese people, which was contradictory to the essence of democracy and reality.
The second approach is to enter the United Nations (UN). In 1971, a wrong decision made by the KMT regime led to Taiwan's pulling out from the UN. Since then Taiwan has been barred from participating in the international community. President Chen said that as a normal country, Taiwan has to re-enter the UN.
The last approach is to repossess the assets unjustly acquired by the KMT. President Chen said that in the past 50 years, the KMT had amassed huge assets through its illegal interwoven relationship with the governments under its control.
"Twenty years ago, the DPP was founded on the belief of freedom, democracy and human rights," said President Chen. "Today we should hold on to the same beliefs to accomplish our missions."