The "UN for Taiwan" march on Sept. 15 was very moving. It gave people courage and determination, filling us with confidence and hope for Taiwan's future.
In July, our government submitted its official membership application to the UN, and this application was significant. Although there have been various obstacles, as we expected, there have been six concrete accomplishments in only two months.
First, our government has declared to the international community that Taiwan is an independent and sovereign state and a democratic, free and peace-loving country. The current political status quo is that there is one country on each side of the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan and the People's Republic of China (PRC) are two different countries, and the PRC does not represent Taiwan and its people.
Second, it shows that Taiwan's attempt to become a member of the UN is not only the basic human right of its 23 million people, but also their strongest wish, and it should not be suppressed, taken away or limited. We 23 million Taiwanese must strive for the international dignity and equality that we deserve. We want to actively participate in the UN and its related organizations. We also want to enjoy the same rights as every other country in the global village and contribute to the international community through our best efforts and fulfill our duties.
Third, it shows that the Taiwan issue is an international one, and not an internal affair of China. Our government's active UN bid under the name Taiwan has triggered and invoked much international concern, support, controversy, criticism and tension, repeatedly proving that the issue is international. The more China oppresses the Taiwanese government and its people the more it highlights the fact that the issue is a shared concern in the international community.
Fourth, it has broken the fetters of the US "one China" policy, as Taiwan is no longer a pawn in its power politics.
Fifth, it demonstrates that Taiwan must not fantasize about winning independence without making an effort.
Sixth, the impact and encouragement of the UN bid has served to strongly promote national awareness and unity in Taiwan. Clearly, Taiwan has transformed from a militarily occupied territory into a country. Even so, to this day some people still claim that it is not a country. They claim that the Republic of China (ROC) is a country, disregarding disagreement from Beijing and Washington. Whether Taiwan is truly a country or not has to be proven by the will and strength of the Taiwanese ourselves. The ambiguity of Taiwan's national status must end. The only practical solution is that Taiwan become a normal country.
Sovereignty is very similar to a person's ownership of a house. What do we do when someone wants to take over our house? Should we give up or try everything we can to safeguard it?
This is the predicament that Taiwan is facing in the international community. For ourselves, our children and grandchildren, we have to bravely gather all our strength and stand firm in our position, invoking our right to protect our country. We have to speak up again and again to let the international community know that Taiwan belongs to the Taiwanese.
In making ourselves heard, we cannot only rely on opinion polls. We should also use a referendum to bring the voices of 23 million Taiwanese together in the most democratic of ways. There is strength in numbers, and the larger the number of votes in favor of entering the UN, the firmer the will of the Taiwanese public to establish their own independent country, and the more convincing the demand becomes.
It is for this reason that I call on everyone to come together and vote in favor of applying for UN membership under the name Taiwan in the UN referendum to be held together with the presidential election in March next year. This vote will be the most important vote we have ever cast in a Taiwanese election. As the ballots accumulate, there will be millions upon millions in support, crystalizing the great will of the people. This will tell all countries big and small that the Taiwanese -- who uphold democracy, freedom and human rights -- are an advanced people fit for the 21st century.
The vote that we cast in the UN referendum is important testimony to the normalization of Taiwan as a country and a milestone in the attempts of the Taiwanese to establish their own country. Future generations of our children and grandchildren will ask what their ancestors did at the crucial moment of independence. Today is that crucial moment, and we must never give up. We must always do the right thing: the thing we ought to do.
After I earned my doctoral degree from the Yale University law department 40 years ago, I remained there as a researcher. In my 1967 English book Formosa, China and the United Nations, I said that although at that time Chiang Kai-shek (
Before the book was published, the Chiang regime's media praised me as the cream of the crop and the best of the nation after placing first in civil servant, judicial and diplomatic examinations; after the book came out, I was reviled as a traitor and put on the blacklist. This was during the dark days of the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) oppressive, authoritarian martial law rule. The government had spies in many places, and we were not even safe overseas.
In May 1993, after the blacklist was abolished, I accepted an invitation from my alma mater National Taiwan University (NTU). After 33 years abroad, I returned to my homeland Taiwan for a series of lectures about UN membership for Taiwan. I emphasized that Taiwan should apply for membership as a new country, instead of trying to "return" under the name "Republic of China." In the past dozen years, the most important aim of the Taiwan New Century Foundation (台灣新世紀文教基金會) that I founded has been to promote the normalization of Taiwan's national status by joining the UN, correcting its national title and amending its constitution.
Fighting for Taiwan's dignity and international status and promoting Taiwanese UN membership seemed to me a long and lonely road when I lived abroad 40 years ago. Today getting together with hundreds of thousands of like-minded people in Kaohsiung to speak up for Taiwan together, it is no longer a lonely road.
I am deeply impressed by the warmth, faith, power and greatness of Taiwanese unity, and I can feel that the democratization and localization of Taiwan has eliminated animosity, obstructions and difficulties, in the process challenging all "impossibles" and overcoming all difficulties.
In Formosa, China and the United Nations I quoted a famous old Jewish saying by Rabbi Hillel symbolic of determination: "If I am not for myself, who will be? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?"
Now, 40 years later, as Taiwan takes big strides forward as a country, every one of us must make a choice to contribute. I am grateful and moved, and I want to encourage everyone by paraphrasing Rabbi Hillel: If we Taiwanese don't make ourselves heard, then who will stand up for us? If we are only for ourselves, what are we? And if not now, when?"
Chen Lung-chu is president of UN for Taiwan and chairman of the Taiwan New Century Foundation.
Translated by Eddy Chang and Anna Stiggelbout
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