Ironies abound in current political climate

"At that time, we did not know who Chen Shui-bian was. But after we saw the bravery of this 20-something lad, we voted for him every time," Lee said.

Chen subsequently became a Taipei City councilor and was involved with various opposition magazines.

In 1985 Chen contested, and lost the election for Tainan County commissioner. It was at a rally during the campaign for this election that his wife was run down three times by a small truck and crippled for life, an accident that has always been attributed to a KMT hit.

Chen later became a legislator, and won Taipei City's mayoral election in 1994, which has been the pinnacle of his political career so far. Despite his failed re-election bid last year, Chen remains the brightest star in the DPP, a status that led to his nomination as the party's candidate for the March 2000 presidential election.

Meanwhile, Soong became the KMT's cultural commissar in his role as chief of the party's cultural affairs department and then later became the secretary general. He was hounded out of his post in 1992 following the KMT's disappointing performance in legislative elections, but was brought back into the government system by Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), who appointed him Taiwan Provincial Governor. With Lee's help, Soong defeated his political rival Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) and was nominated by the KMT for the first popular gubernatorial election in 1994. He won a landslide victory in the election.

"Soong worked alongside two presidents -- Chiang and Lee. He correctly understood Chiang's promotion of members of the Taiwanese elite in the government machine. Therefore, he chose to side with Lee after Chiang's death, and helped him in a struggle within the KMT that lasted for ten years, toppling most mainlander heavyweights in the ruling class, including [former premiers] Li Huan (李煥) and Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村)," Lee said.

"For his role in this struggle, Soong was condemned by many mainlander groups. But on the other hand, he also won the trust of [Taiwanese] voters," Lee added.

Lee said Soong followed Chiang's strategy of throwing money around at the grassroots level to win support during his tenure as provincial governor, building himself a voter-friendly image.

But when Lee began to groom Lien Chan as his successor, second-generation KMT politicians began to sidetrack Soong from the political arena. Seeing what he thought of as his political inheritance being denied him, Soong ended up quarrelling bitterly with Lee Teng-hui, and eventually to set himself up as a `non-party candidate.'

Lee Yung-chih believes that the initial goals of the Kaohsiung protesters have been fulfilled in the localization of Taiwan politics and several rounds of constitutional reform.

"The aim of the past democratic movement was to fight against the KMT. Now the new goal is to fight against China." Lee said. "But the key point is that the voters in Taiwan supported the Kaohsiung Incident generation by casting their votes for them."