Change the anthem
Former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) chairman Richard Bush on Monday published an open letter on the Web site of Washington-based think tank the Brookings Institution expressing his concern over a proposed plebiscite on Taiwanese independence that is being pushed by the pro-independence group Formosa Alliance.
On Wednesday, the AIT also made a clear statement: “We do not support a referendum on Taiwan independence.”
Taiwan is essentially a sovereign, independent nation, which only lacks an amendment to the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution. As it is difficult to amend the Constitution, the alliance should not make such a huge stride in the first place, but rather turn its focus to changing the national anthem.
In an op-ed article published by the Chinese-language Apple Daily on Jan. 23, 2016, history professor Lee Hsiao-feng (李筱峰), from the National Taipei University of Education’s Graduate School of Taiwanese Culture, called for the drafting of an official ROC national anthem, which would effectively avoid disputes arising from people outside the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) with different stances.
Now that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) holds more than half of the legislative seats, if it does not even want to change certain passages of the national anthem, such as “The Three Principles of the People / Is our party’s belief,” how can the public expect it to fulfill its promises of “name rectification and a new constitution.”
To promote gender equality, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau passed a bill to make the country’s national anthem gender neutral by replacing the words “In all thy sons command” with “In all of us command.”
In another instance, Mongolia removed its national anthem’s second verse that praises Lenin, Stalin, Sukhbaatar and Choibalsan. In 2006, the Mongolian parliament further revised the lyrics to commemorate Genghis Khan, and the revised version is sung to the present day.
In comparison, the DPP trumpets transitional justice, but pays no attention to the national anthem being essentially the KMT’s party anthem.
All the nation’s politicians should not talk loudly about “name rectification and a new constitution,” but focus on changing the national anthem, a move that the US might not frown upon.
Chang Hui-ho
New Taipei City
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