The magazine Neo Formosa Weekly (蓬萊島雜誌) resumed publication in electronic form yesterday with the aim of revitalizing the push for an independent republic.
Founded by Huang Tien-fu (黃天福) in 1984, Neo Formosa Weekly published 52 issues, 51 of which were banned. Former president of the magazine Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), former editor-in-chief Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋) and Huang were imprisoned for publishing an article that said former New Party lawmaker Elmer Feng’s (馮滬祥) doctoral dissertation was plagiarized.
Feng filed libel charges against the magazine. While Chen’s appeal against the conviction was pending, he left his post as a Taipei City councilor and returned to his home county of Tainan to run for county commissioner. Chen lost the election by a handful of votes and his supporters alleged that the vote had been rigged by the electoral authorities.
PHOTO: CNA
The magazine’s president, Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), a former deputy secretary-general at the Presidential Office, said yesterday the goal of the magazine was clear — to protect Taiwan’s sovereignty and to build a new, independent republic.
Describing this year as full of misery, Chen Chi-mai said Taiwan had not only suffered the deadliest flooding in 50 years, but had also seen damage to its sovereignty, democracy and human rights since the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) returned to power.
“The corruption cases brought against former president Chen [Shui-bian] are a perfect example of political interference in legal cases,” he said.
While the dangwai (黨外,“outside the KMT”) opposition movement of the 1980s sought to strive for freedom of speech and the freedom to form political parties, Chen Chi-mai said it was necessary to restore the “dangwai spirit” and consolidate public opinion. The magazine’s old office in Kaohsiung has been chosen as the headquarters and Chen Chi-mai said it also hoped to establish branch offices elsewhere.
Magazine editor-in-chief Wang Ding-yu (王定宇), a Tainan City councilor, said the magazine was a communication platform and a tool to organize opposition forces.
“We may be small, but we will not easily back down if the administration continues to ignore the public opinion,” he said.
Huang said the then-KMT administration of the 1980s imposed severe punishments on Neo Formosa Weekly, sentencing the publication’s managers to jail and slapping a NT$2 million fine on the cash-strapped magazine.
“We later learned from declassified documents that the KMT government planned to wipe out the publication,” he said.
Things are different now, he said, but the aim of the magazine would remain the same — to protect Taiwan-centered consciousness and report on the erroneous, unfair and unjust.
Those interested in contributing articles or photographs can find out more information on the Web at www.formosanews.tw.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS