Taipei Times: According to an old Chinese saying, "The minority should treat the majority with wisdom." As your National Party has long been the minority in South Africa, what was the wisdom with which it treated the majority in your society during the process that finally led to the end of apartheid?
F.W. de Klerk: My guiding line and guiding philosophy was that you can't put the future of my people on the basis and the foundation of injustice toward the other people living in the same country. Justice for all can be the only basis on which we can have peace, good relations, and on which everybody in South Africa could have a safe future.
Originally I supported the policy which would give each of the black-cultural nations in South Africa [its] own country. We wanted to build a little Europe there, where the Zulus had Zululand, Xhosas had Xhosaland ... and where the white South Africans would have their own country. ... And all these countries would organize themselves into something like the EU. That, in South Africa's case, failed.
And when I realized in the 1980s that this dream, this ideal, and this way of bringing justice to everybody had failed, I had to say then [that] I couldn't continue with it and I had, therefore, to find another way of bringing justice.
Therefore, already in 1986, we accepted a new vision, the vision of one united South Africa, with one citizenship for all, with all discriminations to be removed, with "one person one vote," but with the effective protection in the new constitution of cultural minorities with regards to their language, with regards to their right of the freedom of association, with regards to all the rights of human freedoms.
TT: Your National Party in South Africa in some ways is similar to the KMT in Taiwan. Both remained in office for decades, became criticized for their undemocratic practices, and then were forced to democratize their countries. To some extent, do you think your party's experience can shed light on the KMT's experience, especially given the fact that the KMT, like the National Party, has become the opposition, like your party?
De Klerk: One can't draw direct parallels. The situation in every country is different. I tried to outline in my speech here the lessons we've learnt. The fact is that your country is different from mine in the sense that it's basically homogeneous. You all speak one language. We have 11 official languages.
So our problems are different. In our case, the challenge is not to have ethnic parties, but to have parties based on values. Are you to the left of center? Are you all socialist-oriented? Are you to the right of center? Are you very strong on free markets? Are you like, if we take Germany for instance, are you like the Social Democrats, or are you like the Christian Democrats? That is what I want for South Africa now. That is, real alignment of politics, [with] people supporting across the color-band -- white, black, brown, Indian -- who believe in the same values, to come together in one political movement.
I think you already have it here in Taiwan. And therefore your politics have become normalized. But what I said while I was here was also that all of you face a common challenge, and the common challenge is the situation with regard to China. To deal with that common challenge, if it can be done, it would be wise to remove it from typical party/political fighting. Treat it as a national issue -- to find a way to build a national consensus of a clear majority of people across party lines about the route to follow, about how to deal with this challenge.
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