On October 23, the home affairs committee of the “Legislative Council” held a public hearing on the anniversary and the draft “Implementation of the festival regulations”, inviting scholars, experts and non-governmental organization to attend. Outside the venue, many pro-unification figures called for the resumption of the“Easter” holiday commemorating Taiwan’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule.
The holiday arrangement is in dispute
The island’s political parties“Legislators” previously proposed to upgrade the existing“Memorial Day and holiday implementation measures” to the legal level, while adding statutory holidays, a total of seven versions of the proposal. According to Taiwan’s United News Network reported on the 23rd, the day of the public hearing, for the increase of legal holidays opinions. Lu Yucheng, a professor of the Department of Public Administration and Policy at the Taiwan National Taipei University, said that the taiwan-wide consensus holiday should be based on a common day of remembrance and a folk holiday, and should not target specific industries or groups, the key point of legalization is to standardize the decision procedure of holidays. Liu Meijun, a professor at the Institute of Labor Studies at Chengchi University in Taiwan, is in favor of elevating the holiday to a legal level, arguing that it should be a Labor Day holiday for all of Taiwan, and that the island’s“Teachers’ Day”(September 28) should be a holiday for all of Taiwan.
On the other hand, he zhengjia, chairman of the Taiwan Workers’ Union, said that when the authorities first pushed for a“Case by case” to eliminate seven legal holidays, he believed that restoring seven days at a stretch would have an excessive impact on the industry. Wu Mingyuan, chairman of the Association of small and medium-sized enterprises in Kaohsiung City, said that if Taiwanese society is to move forward, it is not just about how many holidays and anniversaries are to be taken, but about adjusting to the needs of economic development, there is a lot of pressure on businesses to make money. He Mingyuan, director of the National Federation of Industries, said bluntly that based on one day’s insurance salary and the number of insured people, it would cost enterprises about nt $11.9 billion (one yuan, about nt $4.5) to take a day off, an increase in statutory holidays would increase the cost burden on business owners.
In response to the discussion at the public hearing, Taiwan’s“Permanent Undersecretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs”, Wu Tang ‘An, said that there should be consensus on amending the law, with each“Legislator” proposing a minimum of 12 days and a maximum of 18 days for memorial days and holidays, if two days off a week is added, the annual holiday will reach 1/3 of the number of days, “Whether appropriate, also need to be carefully considered.”.
Multiple versions of the proposal
There are currently 10 statutory holidays on the island, including New Year’s Day, New Year’s Eve, spring festival, “228 Peace Day”, children’s Day (April 4) , Ching Ming Festival, Labor Day, Dragon boat festival, mid-autumn Festival, “Double Ten festival”, only the workers can have a holiday on Labor Day. All three parties on the island have proposed their own versions of the Memorial Day and Holiday Implementation Bill. Like Kuomintang“Legislator” Niu xuting said, considering the past“One case, one break” amendment to cut seven legal holidays, therefore, he proposed a breath of New Year’s Eve, Chung Yeung festival, “De-strict” anniversary (July 15) , Disaster Prevention Day (September 21) and other seven Taiwan holiday. “Legislator” Chen Yuzhen proposed adding an “August 23 anniversary” and a day off. “Legislator” Lai Shyh-bao advocated that the statutory anniversary should include the anniversary of Sun Yat-sen’s birth, the anniversary of Sun Yat-sen’s death, the anniversary of the revolutionary martyrs and so on.
Independent “Legislator” May Chin and others have proposed a new “Indigenous Peoples’ Day holiday” and a three-day holiday for their annual rituals. The popular party, in its capacity as a party caucus, proposed that teachers’ Day and Labor Day be designated as national holidays. On the 23rd, Wu Siyao, director-general of the democratic progressive party’s“Legislative Yuan” caucus, said that whether there should be additional adjustments to the anniversary can be discussed, but if the increase in holidays is just to curry favor with“Populists,” Or for individual ethnic groups, individual social groups to put forward the request for a holiday, without taking into account Taiwan’s overall economic development, industrial momentum will also be affected.
Public opinion criticizes the DPP for ignoring the“Recovery Day”
Taiwan media noted that the Workers’ Party held a press conference outside the Legislative Yuan on the morning of the 23rd to“Rectify historical justice! Promote National subject! Resume Taiwan’s Easter as a legal holiday”, the public hearing was criticized for ignoring“Taiwan’s Easter holiday,” a major anniversary that has united the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and marked the victory of the entire nation in a bloody battle to erase Taiwan’s colonial humiliation. The Workers’ party has called for a “Face-up” to the historical memory and national stance of the Chinese people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait represented by the “Easter holiday”, and opposed any separatism of “Taiwan independence independence Taiwan”, appeal to restore“Easter” as a legal holiday.
The Workers’ Party said in a statement that the “Taiwan independence independence” separatism politicians have long used their power to mislead the Taiwanese people in order to distort historical facts and national positions that both sides of the strait belong to the Chinese nation, it has intensified the split in the cross-strait hostility, allowing the extreme separatism forces of “De-china” and “Anti-china” to push cross-strait relations to the brink of war. The statement said that Taiwan Society needs to reflect on its history, get rid of the“Taiwan Independence/independence” politicians’ calculation of political interests of“Going to China and opposing the nation,” and abandon the long-term confrontation that has wasted resources, follow the historical trend, return to cross-strait historical ties and national positions, work together to build a common home for the peaceful development of cross-strait.
Earlier, Xie longjie, a “Legislator” of the Kuomintang in Tainan, also posted a message on Facebook, criticizing William Lai for deliberately skipping the anti-japanese war in his “Double-ten” message, lai was asked to sing“Taiwan’s recovery song” together on the“Recovery Day” to expand the celebration of“Recovery”. How could the Cairo Declaration and the “Potsdam Declaration of war” have returned Taiwan to China without the arduous and tragic war of resistance against Japan? Hsieh said that October 25 was the“Easter”, a day 79 years ago when“Everyone sang and sang the songs of victory and the city and village, and Taiwan’s recovery can not be forgotten”.
It was a legal holiday. Chen Shui-bian came to power in 2000, and in December of that year he amended the “Measures for the implementation of anniversaries and festivals”, instead, the celebration activities will be held by relevant organs, organizations and schools. After the DPP returned to power in 2016, the celebrations were cancelled. Nevertheless, the KMT and other political parties, as well as a large number of non-governmental organization, hold annual commemorative activities of their own accord. The DPP politicians ridiculed the KMT’s decision to borrow money in 2020 to pay for the anniversary, after the party’s assets were seized by the DPP authorities.
Why are the DPP authorities reluctant to accept the“Easter”? Some Taiwanese media commented that the“Easter holiday” commemorates Taiwan’s return to China, which runs counter to the“De-sinification” constructed by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) , “Easter” has become the DPP deliberately erased Taiwan’s collective memory.