This year, 228 Memorial Day saw a memorable and meaningful commemoration. Yesterday was a most touching scene as people of Taiwan formed a human chain from one end of the island to the other and then held up their hands at precisely 2:28 pm. Rather than feeling hatred and vengeful, the message that the people tried to get across to the world is their love and faith in their land and their longing for peace. This was despite the tragic massacres and bloodshed perpetrated 57 years ago by the totalitarian Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government, which served as a prelude to decades of white terror and the martial-law era.
Vice President Annette Lu (
The 228 experience taught us the importance of democracy and freedom and the ruthlessness of single-party totalitarianism. The people of Taiwan will never give up the fruits of democracy and embrace the dictatorship of Beijing. The sovereignty of this country must be safeguarded. The experience also revealed to us the evil of unchecked aggression. Therefore, the people of Taiwan must call for peace and say "no" to Chinese missiles.
Moreover, it is the wish of the organizers and the participants of the event to unequivocally teach not only China, but in fact the entire world the valuable lessons they have learned, so that Beijing can no longer deceive the international community about what is the will of the people of Taiwan.
The lessons of the 228 Incident are heartfelt by the people of Taiwan, and have become a part of their core values. This was reflected by the overwhelming and enthusiastic participation in the rally yesterday. It was estimated that 500,000 people would have been enough to form the human chain. At the end, according to the chairman of the rally, Huang Chao-tung (
However, it is truly puzzling how some people, mostly supporters of the pan-blues, could paint the holding of the rally as inciting and manipulating ethnic rivalry and hatred. For example, as late as on Friday, the Miaoli campaign headquarters of pan-blue presidential candidate and KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
While it is true that in the past many people in Taiwan perceived the 228 Incident as a massacre of native Taiwanese by the ruling Chinese regime, people in Taiwan -- across all ethnic groups -- have come to realize that such an interpretation is an over-simplified depiction of the tragedy. Everyone who lives here is Taiwanese. In fact, it was the intention of the organizers to highlight the theme of ethnic harmony and unity through this rally -- as demonstrated by the participation of people from every ethnic group in the rally and the invitation of representatives from the five major ethnic groups in Taiwan to stand next to Chen and Lee in the event.
The 228 Incident should not be a taboo or a hush-hush topic -- the way it was treated before Lee openly issued an apology for it during his presidency. It is part of Taiwan's history that must be faced with love and tolerance, which is exactly what this rally was about.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) has caused havoc with his attempts to overturn the democratic and constitutional order in the legislature. If we look at this devolution from the context of a transition to democracy from authoritarianism in a culturally Chinese sense — that of zhonghua (中華) — then we are playing witness to a servile spirit from a millennia-old form of totalitarianism that is intent on damaging the nation’s hard-won democracy. This servile spirit is ingrained in Chinese culture. About a century ago, Chinese satirist and author Lu Xun (魯迅) saw through the servile nature of
In their New York Times bestseller How Democracies Die, Harvard political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt said that democracies today “may die at the hands not of generals but of elected leaders. Many government efforts to subvert democracy are ‘legal,’ in the sense that they are approved by the legislature or accepted by the courts. They may even be portrayed as efforts to improve democracy — making the judiciary more efficient, combating corruption, or cleaning up the electoral process.” Moreover, the two authors observe that those who denounce such legal threats to democracy are often “dismissed as exaggerating or
Monday was the 37th anniversary of former president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) death. Chiang — a son of former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), who had implemented party-state rule and martial law in Taiwan — has a complicated legacy. Whether one looks at his time in power in a positive or negative light depends very much on who they are, and what their relationship with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is. Although toward the end of his life Chiang Ching-kuo lifted martial law and steered Taiwan onto the path of democratization, these changes were forced upon him by internal and external pressures,
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus in the Legislative Yuan has made an internal decision to freeze NT$1.8 billion (US$54.7 million) of the indigenous submarine project’s NT$2 billion budget. This means that up to 90 percent of the budget cannot be utilized. It would only be accessible if the legislature agrees to lift the freeze sometime in the future. However, for Taiwan to construct its own submarines, it must rely on foreign support for several key pieces of equipment and technology. These foreign supporters would also be forced to endure significant pressure, infiltration and influence from Beijing. In other words,
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