I think that ultimately the DPP will permit the KMT to sell them down and make them disappear, then claim a few tokens — you know, the compromise type of solutions that are so common here. There’s no way, unless the DPP gains a legislative majority, that it can force the KMT to hand them over, so what else can it do?

An arbitrator would be a neat solution. But then there’s the enforcement issue….

I’d also be interested in knowing what it was that Calvin Wen said that got the DPP so riled up.

I’m sure the DPP would use all that money to buy parks, cataract operations for old ladies, free cotton candy for all the kids, and fuzzy bunny habitats.

Any way you cut it, those assets have to be returned to the people and government of Taiwan from whence they were stolen. And yes, Franc, they just might use it to buy parks — if you would take a ride out of Taipei once in a while, you might notice the massive rise in land reserved for parks all over Taiwan during the period of localization that has been ongoing since LTH initiated the programs in the 1990s and the DPP extended them. Been to Ilan? DPP administrated for so many years, it has great parks. As for fuzzy bunny habitats, I’m sure there is no need to point out the rise in the amount of land set aside for national park and reserve development since Taiwan has democratized.

I have no idea whether or how the assets will be returned. Or how they will be used once returned. Maybe the DPP will loot and pillage them. But it is certain that the KMT has not used them in any way beneficial to the island, whereas we already know that whatever its faults, the DPP does at least aim at benefitting the locals.

Michael

The DPP is not connected with gangsters? Whatever it is you’re smoking, save some for me next time I’m down in Taichung.

I’m all for seeking justice, it’s just that in this case, the motivation is not ‘justice’, but the furthest thing from it. I’m sure the DPP would use all that money to buy parks, cataract operations for old ladies, free cotton candy for all the kids, and fuzzy bunny habitats.

Of course. We should refrain from seeking justice because, well, the future is unforeseeable.

The DPP has shown itself to be just as corrupt as the KMT.

Quite right! For example, they’ve shot thousands of people in Taiwan, plundered the local farm and irrigation associations, shut down magazines and papers they don’t like, set up sweetheart 18% interest accounts and special funds to buy the bureacracy’s loyalty, connected themselves to gangsters so they can control elections at home and conduct assassinations in the US, forbidden the locals to speak their language, and sent thousands of aborigines who had served in the Japanese army off to die in China.

Yep, damn the DPP! They ARE just as bad as the KMT.

And in any case, I agree with the driver. By obsessing about the dent that some hit and run person did, and who he could never bring to account, he is missing out on fares and money he could be earning to fix the dent.

Same with KMT assets. It’s a clear political tool by the DPP. I doubt they even care about getting the assets back–if they don’t, it’s always something they can use to stir up voters when the elections roll around. And even if they did get them back, why should we believe they would return them to the people? The DPP has shown itself to be just as corrupt as the KMT.

The real danger about ‘transitional justice’ is that it just becomes revenge politics, with no justice whatsoever. And from what I’ve seen in Taiwan, my guess is that is what will happen here.

I am also a little cynical about the DPP’s actions, but it is still a very important issue that can’t be ignored.

Yes, I mean an independent commission like the NCC or CEC.