Writer Yang Ching-chu (楊青矗) said yesterday that the Coalition for Equal Opportunity (族群平等行動聯盟) is using the banner of "ethnic equality" to suppress Taiwan's local consciousness and campaign for the pan-blue camp.
Yang and two Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, Chang Chun-hung (張俊宏) and Lin Yu-sheng (林育生), held a news conference yesterday to counter statements by the coalition. The coalition had accused the three of "lacerating Taiwan's ethnic communities and intensifying ethnic disagreements on this island."
"The coalition quoted us out of context and labeled us as `bad examples' that have alienated Taiwan's ethnic communities," Chang said.
Chang said the statements singled out by the coalition dealt with national identity rather than ethnicity.
"But the coalition did not clarify their definition and simply accused others of hurting people's feelings," he said.
Chang said that China, with hundreds of missiles targeted at Taiwan, is trying to annihilate Taiwan's ethnic groups, which is the real threat to peace and harmony in the nation.
"The presidential election in March is not an election to carry out the second rotation of ruling parties. It is an election to choose national identification and the nation's future," he said.
Chang said the issue of ethnicity is serious and should be dealt with rationally and honestly. He urged the coalition not to make use of ethnic issues as a political tool.
Yang pointed out that key members of the coalition are pro-unification and campaigned for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜).
"We have reason to doubt what politicians of the pan-blue camp said and did, who have, in fact, opposed every act that is beneficial to Taiwan," Yang said.
Yang suggested the coalition pay more attention to monitoring TV programs and call-in shows that ridicule or belittle the government and Taiwanese consciousness and warned against a regression to the censorship used during KMT rule.
Chang and Yang were imprisoned for eight years and four years, respectively, for their participation in the Kaohsiung Incident in 1979.
The Coalition for Equal Opportunity, set up on Jan. 11, was launched by nearly 100 figures from cultural and academic fields as well as social groups. The coalition called on politicians to stop fomenting hatred between ethnic communities.
Internationally renowned film director Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢), a second-generation mainlander of Hakka origin, is the convener of the coalition and proposed "anti-discrimination, anti-laceration and anti-manipulation of ethnic groups" as the group's slogan.
On Sunday, the coalition selected six individuals' remarks that they considered bad examples that "sabotage the equality of ethnic groups."
Five pro-localization figures -- Chang, Yang, Lin, DPP Legislator Parris Chang (張旭成) and former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) -- were singled out as bad examples, along with one bad example from the blue camp, Soong.
Hou said both the pan-blue camp and pan-green camp received a score of zero for "promoting equal opportunities" during the past week.
Yang was quoted as saying that "the pan-blue camp wore red jackets in a campaign rally to show that it has embraced China's beliefs."
Chang was quoted as saying that "China has worked with other countries to suppress Taiwan, and the modern anti-imperialist Boxer Rebellion [the pan-blue camp] joined their ally to threaten their own people."
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