As I was flipping through the pages of the Taipei Times while eating dinner, one article really grabbed my attention ("It's time for the US to define the `status quo,'" April 30, page 8). I was captivated by what the author was proposing, which was portrayed as a major solution to the Taiwan Strait riddle.
I do not deny the importance of the US government making a declaration on the status quo in order to ensure peace and stability across the strait.
However, despite Washington's undeniable power and influence on the international diplomatic stage, I have to disagree, firmly and proudly, with the ideas behind that editorial.
I am a senior at National Chengchi University, where this year I took a course titled Basic Principles of Historiography, in which the professor uses Taiwan's many dilemmas as it pursues total freedom as a reference.
Just last week, members of my team had to give a presentation on focusing on Taiwan under international laws to elucidate the several international treaties signed after World War II and to define their legality and legitimacy.
Two elements emerged during the discussion.
On the one hand were a series of unspecific, rashly-drafted international treaties. On the other were powerful countries' interference in our own "status quo."
After the end of the war, four treaties were signed that described where Taiwan belongs. Not only did the documents contradict each other, but they also failed to address the complex historical events that were taking place at the time.
Years later, after the critical period when colonized countries around the world were struggling for freedom and self-determination, Taiwan was still under the umbrella of the US, Japan and other so-called first world countries because Taiwanese ostensibly could not chart their own future.
As we proposed in our class presentation, the time is now upon us to make our own decisions and call ourselves by our own name.
For many young adults today, the biggest problem facing the nation is that its people are disunited. Separated into different groups because of grudges held by our ancestors and historical tragedies, we have failed to achieve mutual understanding and to define who we really are.
Our country is made of many groups -- the old-school people who insist on going back to China, the brainwashed offspring who think that independence is too dangerous and that it is only a gimmick that our president put forth in order to gain power, the ignorant toy soldiers who have no idea what all the fuss is about but still strongly support the ideology of their respective parties, the easy-goers who don't care because they think it doesn't really affect their daily lives and the radicals for whom reality is like water on the back of a duck.
The truth of the matter is, we are Taiwan, and we should nourish and nurture all of us, irrespective of whether one is native-born Taiwanese, Mainlander or immigrant.
We are who we are and we don't need anyone else to tell us who we are. We don't -- and shouldn't -- ask for anybody's permission or approval in proclaiming our name. And we definitely shouldn't let ill-defined, antiquated legal documents decide who we are.
The US is the last country we should ever turn to for help, as it is nothing but a cunning fox that cannot even give justice to her own people, such as the African-Americans who built and are still building that country's wealth.
As Malcolm X said: "Civil rights means you're asking Uncle Sam to treat you right. Human rights are something you were born with."
I'm with Malcolm on this one.
Taiwan's status should be defined in a manner that reflects the spirit of the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which state that all people have the right to self-determination. Our country's independence is worth fighting for.
Kaya Ko
Taipei
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