Mon, Aug 30, 2004 page8

• Pan-blue camp must face up to brutal past

  • By Sun Ming-lin 孫銘燐
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  Recently, my job afforded me the opportunity to contact some old victims of the White Terror era.

  One of them said he was extremely excited that Taiwan would be returned to the "motherland" after Japan was defeated in 1945.

  He viewed China as his spiritual motherland, saying that nothing could surpass his passion for it.

  Those who lived in this country at the time had a greater China consciousness, believing that they were the Han people whose ancestors originally moved from China to Taiwan, and that the "foreign regime" actually referred to the Japanese colonial government. Of course, for the nation's Aborigines, all regimes are foreign regimes.

  The notorious 228 Incident in 1947 aroused the Taiwanese people's hostility towards the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) rule.

  Throughout the 1960s, the people lived in austere conditions. They could only focus on "increasing production to contribute to the country."

  The country was almost cut off from the progressive and anti-war social movements that flourished thought in the West during this period.

  After the 1979 Kaohsiung Incident, the opposition tangwai, or those "outside the KMT movement" gradually won public sympathy, and it united with the other social movements in the mid-80s.

  A host of environmental, Aboriginal, labor and other social groups came together to oppose the KMT's authoritarian regime. Established in 1986, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) emerged from these forces.

  The so-called Taiwan identity also began to take shape, stressing that the public must unite to fight the KMT's regime that oppresses the Taiwanese people.

  Towards the end of the late president Chiang Ching-kuo's (蔣經國) rule, conservative forces were increasingly discarded and the president adopted a series of liberalization measures, including lifting martial law, and abolishing restrictions on political parties and the press.

  He swept away the obstacles to democratic politics and freedom of speech. His successor, former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), achieved a bloodless "silent revolution" in the political sphere.

  However, the issue of transitional justice in Taiwan's society was not appropriately handled. Some White Terror victims complain to this day that they should be compensated with the KMT's assets, not taxpayers' money, and that none of the oppressors of the past have been punished.

  For them, Lee's apology was not enough, since the matter was unrelated to him.

  Since the pan-blue camp's leaders have not seriously dealt with the issue of justice -- even though KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) went down on their knees and kissed the ground to show their love for Taiwan during the presidential campaign -- Lee still called on the public not to pity them and to eliminate the last remnant of the old foreign regime.

  Now that the blue-camp has once again lost the presidency, the they should bravely face the past and clearly define what they believe to be modern Taiwan-China relations.

  They should also focus on today's social policy issues, shed the foreign regime label and strive toward the goal of serving the people of Taiwan.

  Sun Ming-lin is the project planner of the documentary, Chiang Ching-kuo, produced by the Public Television Service (PTS) Foundation.

  TRANSLATED BY EDDY CHANG
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