A new book has revealed that a man with an organized crime background was instructed to attack the office of Formosa Magazine in Kaohsiung several times before a demonstration organized by the magazine was suppressed, and then was turned on by the authorities.
The account was found in a book on the December 1979 incident released by Academia Historica and the National Human Rights Museum on Saturday that provides a deeper look into the lead-up to the demonstration, its suppression, known as the Kaohsiung Incident, and its aftermath.
According to the book, a restaurant owner who was also known to be a gangster was repeatedly directed by the Taiwan Garrison Command to attack the office of the magazine, which challenged the authoritarian Kuomintang (KMT) government at the time and urged it to remove martial law.
The restaurant owner, named Tai Chung-ching (???), carried out the attacks before the Kaohsiung Incident, but was later listed as a target in a national security crackdown by authorities, the book said, angering Tai, who saw himself as a patriot betrayed by his country.
In a ceremony to launch the book, Academia Historica President Chen Yi-shen (???) said Tai’s story showed why the confrontation between the KMT and the opposition was so fierce ahead of the massive demonstration organized by the magazine in Kaohsiung.
The Kaohsiung Incident refers to the suppression of the rally, held on Dec. 10, 1979 to commemorate Human Rights Day and call for democracy. Clashes broke out between police and protesters, who were also tear-gassed, and many were later imprisoned.
Among those arrested during the crackdown were Annette Lu (???), Taiwan’s vice president from 2000 to 2008, the magazine’s founder Huang Hsin-chieh (???), who chaired the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) from 1988-1992, and Shih Ming-teh (???), who chaired the DPP from 1994 to 1996.
The new book draws some of its information from petitions filed by Tai in March 1983 with the National Security Bureau and the Taiwan Garrison Command to protest his later treatment.
In the new book’s preface, Chen said Tai acted on behalf of the Taiwan Garrison Command, a secret police and national security body that suppressed dissent around Taiwan before being abolished in August 1992.
Later, however, Tai was the target of crackdowns by the authorities, which led Tai to file the petitions, Chen wrote.
Citing the petitions, the book said Tai described himself as a patriot who always did what was good for the country and society.
Chen, meanwhile, also saw the new book and its description of how the secret national security apparatus operated around the time of the Kaohsiung Incident as an autopsy of the state apparatus during the authoritarian era in Taiwan.
The book’s eight volumes describe the authorities’ investigations into and monitoring of Formosa Magazine, the arrests and court hearings of the political victims in the incident, and what the government did in the post-incident period, according to Chen.
Chen said he also looked forward to the release of historical files by Academia Historica in the future on other prominent cases, including that involving the murder of Lin Yi-hsiung’s (???) family members.
While Lin was in detention after being arrested for his involvement in the Kaohsiung Incident, his mother and 7-year-old twin daughters were killed on Feb. 28, 1980, which many believe was a warning to other democracy activists.
The killers have never been identified even though theories abound.
Before the book on the Kaohsiung Incident, Academia Historica has also released a 29-volume file on the 228 Incident — a crackdown on anti-government protests that occurred from late February until mid-May 1947 in Taiwan under the KMT’s rule.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel