In response to the criticism of his views on late president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), independent Taipei mayoral hopeful Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said that people lives can often be divided into stages, and that he was of course not talking about Chiang's whole life, but only the later half, or the last 10 years, adding that during his last 10 years, Chiang did make an effort, and that was why Ko approved of Chiang.
The second half of Chiang's life spanned the years from 1949 to 1988, and his last 10 years were 1978 to 1988. The start of the second half of his life coincided with the murders and imprisonment of dissidents during the White Terror era, which was directed by Chiang himself.
The bloody political suppression during his final 10 years included such events as the large-scale framing and imprisonment of people during and following the Kaohsiung Incident in 1979 and 1980, the murders of Lin I-hsiung's (林義雄) mother and two of his daughters in his home in 1980, the murder of Carnegie Mellon University assistant professor Chen Wen-cheng (陳文成) at the National Taiwan University (NTU) library in 1981 and the use of organized crime in the assassination of dissident writer Chiang Nan (江南) in the US in 1984.
The Chiang family was a typical example of a hereditary presidential system, and they were more arrogant and brutal than the children and grandchildren of high government officials. Even before the Chiang Nan murder took place, Chiang had already arranged for Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) to take over as president and James Soong (宋楚瑜) to assist the third generation of the Chiang family in order to pass power on to the next Chiang generation. The problem was that the Chiang family's involvement in the Chiang Nan murder crossed a red line and angered the US, forcing Chiang to announce the end of his plans to pass the presidency on to a third generation of the Chiang family. Whether or not Chiang, as a result of US pressure, actually planned to follow through on these announcements still awaits further research.
Ko also said that “Lee Teng-hui was the last student to graduate from Chiang's school, and perhaps one day he would put things straight, since he lived through that period and since he held that position.” This statement reveals the level of Ko's historic training and understanding. The phrase “(I was) the last student in the Chiang Ching-kuo school” was intended to give Lee the right to interpret Chiang Ching-kuo, but the fact is that Lee benefited directly from being in Chiang's favor and he is an interested party. The way Lee describes Chiang must be carefully studied and verified by historians, and the results must be interpreted in their historical context.
The pan-blue and pan-green political forces compete and different groups need to reconcile, but there is no true reconciliation in our distorted reality. Reconciliation means reconciliation between currently existing groups, and it is a two-way street. What we do not need are insults to the sacrifices made by our forebears in an attempt at making the perpetrators look good.
Lin Kien-tsu is a member of the Taiwan Association of University Professors.
Translated by Drew Cameron
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