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Straight-talking Lee Teng-hui has last laugh

By Joyce Yen
CONTRIBUTING REPORTER
Sunday, May 27, 2001, Page 19

An Account Of Lee Teng-hui in Power (李登輝執政告白實錄) By Tzou Jiing-wen 387 pages This book is available only in Chinese

In the month since its publication, An Account of Lee Teng-hui in Power (李登輝執政告白實錄) has raised a storm. The title itself, in English translation, is controversial, as it omits the Chinese term "gaobai" (告白), which means to confess, or tell all.

A more faithful translation of the title would read "A True Account of Lee's Tell-All Regarding His Presidency" because it is less an account, and more a settling of accounts from the former president as recorded by one interviewer.

The book's jacket and title page show that Tzou Jiing-wen (鄒景雯) is ascribed the role of note-taking interviewer, and Lee is the interviewee, which begs the question of whether the two are trying to share or deny authorship. In fact, on the copyright page, Tzou is referred to as a "compiler" instead of "author."

The cover art of this book, which is available only in its Chinese version, is especially revealing. The covers of Lee's three previous books all featured the standard, stately graphics one typically associates with political discussions and grand ideas -- towering mountains adorned his last book's cover, for example. This time, Lee, in a deliberately tongue-in-cheek and unpresidential style, poses as a paparazzi on the cover.

`[The camera on the cover] declares that Lee will tell his story according to his photographic memory and will catch many of his foes with their pants down.'

The Canon camera Lee holds before his face serves more than one purpose. First, it serves as a mask, in the same way that Tzou's role as "compiler" of the account is a mask for Lee -- aside from the few passages in quotation marks, we can't tell which are Lee's own words and which are Tzou's. Second, the camera symbolizes voyeurism and factuality. It declares that Lee will tell his story according to his photographic memory and will catch many of his foes with their pants down. Third, the camera is a Canon, which is a possible play on words with the term canonical -- something that is official and authorized. So, although the book is more or less a prank, Lee seems to give it his official imprimatur. Oddly, the commentators and media organizations that have come out in droves mostly to decry the book and Lee himself as a defeated old man have conspicuously ignored the obvious joke on the cover.

In places, the book is heavy with King Lear-like resentment, as when Lee admits to being heart-broken over his handpicked successor Lien Chan's (連戰) turning against him after the KMT's resounding defeat in the 2000 presidential election. But elsewhere Lee is as sharp as a court jester, as when he throws new light on the role former premier Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村) played in the Lafayette frigate procurement scandal. Lee also lets loose against Academia Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲), whom he describes as an egghead who dabbles in everything but gets involved in nothing. And not surprisingly, the book has a lot to say about People First Party (PFP) chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), and in particular his money scandals, which by now are not news to anyone. If the book has something new to say about Soong, it is to denounce Soong's timid behavior at key moments in Taiwan's democratization process.

One person Lee lets off the hook, however, is Wang Tso-yung (王作榮), who has repeatedly voiced regrets about introducing Lee into the KMT and helping the former president consolidate his power base. While Wang has written numerous articles on the topic, Lee devotes only roughly one page to his friend-turned-foe.

According to Lee, he appointed Wang as president of the Control Yuan over his aides' objections to Wang's age. When Lee wanted Wang to retire, Wang asked for housing, a car and a government-paid driver. These requests were refused and ever since, Wang has reacted bitterly toward the former president. Lee writes that if Wang's intelligent and sensible wife were still alive, Wang would not behave this way. Of the people protesting Lee's book, Wang is the only one to come out threatening a libel suit.

Lee also deflates Singapore senior statesman Lee Kuan-yew's (李光耀) self-perception as having played a pivotal role in cross-strait relations as exaggerated and describes how Lee Kuan-yew asked for a sizable chunk of profit in a potential cross-strait shipping joint venture formed by Beijing, Taipei and Singapore once Taipei opened up direct links with China.

In an interesting passage about Alice King (金美齡), the pro-independence hard-liners' darling, Lee says he sympathizes with many of her views, but he does not count her as a close friend, nor does he share her antipathy against China. In fact, Lee's stated affinity for Chinese culture has been the most overlooked aspect of the book. He claims reservations about parts of Chinese culture, but adds that he never denied he was Chinese. He also mentions his desire to visit northern China to retrace the footsteps of Confucius. Furthermore, as a college student contemplating a major, he chose agronomy over Western history because he wanted to help solve China's agricultural problems. He has read books by Lu Xun (魯迅), Guo Moruo (郭沫若) and Bo Yang(柏楊), and found much inspiration in them, he says.

If these nods to Chinese culture have softened the Beijing authorities' contempt for Lee they haven't let on. So far, Beijing has been silent on the book.
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