People must not forget the suffering and sacrifice of democracy activists who fought against the authoritarian Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime for Taiwanese to have free elections, Vice President William Lai (賴清德), the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate, said yesterday.
Lai was marking the 44th anniversary of the Formosa Incident, also known as the Kaohsiung Incident.
The Formosa Incident was a pro-democracy demonstration organized by Formosa Magazine employees on Dec. 10, 1979 — Human Rights Day. The march led to clashes with military police and soldiers, with virtually all major opposition figures being arrested.
Photo: Hsu Li-chuan, Taipei Times
“People marched shoulder to shoulder during street protests in those years,” Lai told a rally in Kaohsiung, which was held in part to promote DPP Legislator Lee Kun-tse’s (李昆澤) campaign for the Jan. 13 elections.
“We must not forget the pioneers of the Taiwan democracy movement. They had great courage, and were not afraid of the police arresting them, not afraid of being sent to jail, and some were even willing to sacrifice their lives to fight for democracy,” the vice president said.
“Throughout it all, Kaohsiung residents stuck with the activists and supported the democracy cause, so that we could all get through that dark era of one-party rule, to reach the open society with the freedoms we enjoy today,” he said.
Lai said that Taiwan is now facing intimidation from China.
“We must again march shoulder to shoulder and united together as one to safeguard our democracy,” he said.
He said that he and his running mate, former representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), would seek to ensure that Taiwan remains a democracy and participates on the world stage.
He said that it was important for him and Hsiao to attend the commemoration, to recognize the people in Kaohsiung who fought for democracy, referring to the city as “the sacred site of Taiwanese democracy.”
He said that Taiwanese cannot accept policies that would make Taiwan subordinate to China.
“If we accept such policies, that state that Taiwan belongs to China, then Taiwanese sovereignty would no longer exist,” he said.
Additional reporting by Wang Jung-hsiang
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