Sun, Jun 24, 2001 page3

• Newsmaker3 -- Fighting on the diplomatic front lines

  • By Monique Chu / STAFF REPORTER
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  Back in March 1973 when Taipei issued an emergency order requiring Madrid-based Taiwanese diplomats to evacuate from Spain after Spain broke ties with Taiwan, the then-32-year-old Taiwanese diplomat Peter Cheng (鄭博久) brought only two things with him.

  "I had no time to pack. I brought my four-month-old daughter [Christine Cheng] and our national flag that had just been lowered at the embassy," Cheng recalled.

  On June 18, when Taiwan broke ties with Macedonia following the crisis-torn Balkan state's decision to switch recognition from Taipei to Beijing, Cheng, serving as Taipei's de facto ambassador to Skopje since January 1999, was unable to hide his disappointment.

  

  Peter Cheng

  TAIPEI TIMES FILE PHOTO

  "I regretted this outcome personally," Cheng said. "Sometimes I feel that accomplishing something requires divine providence, and that leaves me feeling pretty helpless."

  Recalling the past few weeks when ties between Taiwan and Macedonia became increasingly shaky as the pro-Beijing forces in Macedonia's coalition government gained the upper hand, Cheng said an e-mail from his daughter served to comfort him.

  Quoting the last few lines of US poet Robert Frost's poem The Road Not Taken," Christine Cheng said her father has chosen "the road less traveled" by taking up the task of opening Taiwan's embassy in Skopje in 1999 following his previous position as Taipei's deputy representative to the US.

  "Two roads split ahead of you two years ago. You had a choice: to take on Macedonia or not. You chose the challenge, one that not many people are willing to take, due to self-serving interests perhaps," wrote Cheng, currently a Ph.D student of child clinical psychology in New York.

  "You took on Macedonia, despite knowing how hard it would be to keep. Everyone knew that Macedonia was very vulnerable, and our diplomatic relationship was very tenuous. Despite that, you wanted to fight for it, to make a difference, to add a new experience for yourself," the e-mail said.

  "When you return to Taiwan, you shall carry yourself head up, shoulders back, and looking everyone in the eye."

  Indeed, legislators gave the thumbs-up to Cheng's performance in Macedonia.

  "We've recognized his performance despite the severance of ties," said KMT legislator Lee Shang-ren (李先仁).

  For example, when Lee visited Macedonia in August, 1999, a time when the Balkan state was bombarded with an influx of Albanian refugees from troubled neighboring Kosovo, he learned that "Cheng had risked his life to come in out of Kosovo a few times."

  KMT Legislator Douglas Hung (洪讀) gave Cheng a high score.

  "He made all possible last-ditch efforts to secure ties and sustain Taiwan's dignity," Hung said.

  Hung also praised Cheng for having visited all 23 villages and townships in Macedonia to seek first-hand information.

  Despite general recognition of Cheng's performance, criticism was inevitable. And the severest came from veteran Taiwanese journalist Carol Chang (張桂越), based in Skopje since 1999.

  "It's not necessary for him to visit all these villages and townships. He should have spent time trying to meet all kinds of party leaders instead," Chang said.

  "As the ambassador, he should work as a general at the front line. And a general doesn't need to dig the trench by himself," said Chang, who led a news agency called Taiwan News International.

  Chang also accused Cheng of failing to establish contacts with the anti-Taiwan political parties including the Liberal Party (LP) of Macedonia and the Social Democratic Alliance of Macedonia (SDSM), when both parties had not joined the coalition government.

  The veteran diplomat denied Chang's attack. He said efforts were made to establish contacts with these pro-Beijing political parties, although admittedly it was "not easy" to arrange meetings with these party leaders and the communist-party-turned SDSM, for one, had refused to have any contact with the Taiwanese ambassador.

  Cheng said the purpose of visiting Macedonia's towns and villages was two-fold: to supervise the 38 Taiwan-invested aid programs spread throughout the country and establish ties with Macedonian parliamentarians across the party lines in their constituencies.

  Cheng said he was "deeply moved" by Christine's e-mail because it came when Chang's attack on him appeared in The Journalist magazine in early June.

  "Despite the criticism, I've told my colleagues that we should endure disgrace and all insults in order to accomplish our tasks," Cheng said.

  Although Macedonia may always be a source of regret for the 30-year diplomat, his record has outshone that of many of his colleagues at the foreign ministry.

  In 1983, Cheng was ordered to open Taiwan's first embassy in the Caribbean in St Vincent. In the late 1980s, Cheng risked his life to visit war-torn Grenada, then under attack by the US, to obtain first-hand information. He was even once held in custody. His effort then was conducive to Grenada's subsequent decision in 1989 to switch ties from Beijing to Taipei. And less than a year after Cheng was stationed in Jordan, the start of the Gulf War gave him the task of evacuating Taiwanese from the war-torn country.

  When asked his next step, Cheng said: "None. I am a man waiting for certain punishments" for the severance of ties between Taiwan and Macedonia. But for a seasoned diplomat who never refuses an assignment from the foreign ministry, Cheng is expected to embark on another frontline diplomatic mission soon.
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