KMT finds portrayal in school textbooks unflattering

KMT officials are up in arms about passages appearing in social science and history textbooks that are critical of the party, saying the descriptions are "derogatory."

Party officials yesterday also called on the government to exercise discretion when it comes to the editing of new textbooks for junior high schools set to debut in September.

At issue are textbooks currently in use. Passages in the books say the KMT in the past "monopolized" Taiwan's politics and "failed to draw a line between the government and the party."

The books were edited five years ago, when the KMT was still in power.

Kuo Su-chun (郭素春), deputy director-general of the party's Culture and Communications Affairs Committee, said similar descriptions of the KMT should be left out of new editions of textbooks to be introduced in September.

The textbooks are used in the first-year program for junior high schools, and new versions of the books are to be introduced with the launch of the nine-year integrated curriculum.

Kuo said the description of the KMT was "unfair" and based on a"twisted ideology."

The party official also said the government should keep politics out of education.

"We should take the growth and education of the next generation seriously," Kuo said.

According to the KMT, the passages came to the party's attention when KMT Legislator Shyu Jong-Shyong (徐中雄) was helping his child, a first-year student in junior high school, review lessons in social science and history.

Shyu brought the matter to the KMT's Central Standing Committee meeting on Wednesday, criticizing the DPP government for "resorting to any means to defame the KMT" and "brainwashing the next generation."

At the meeting, KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) said the matter was "very horrible," adding that using textbooks for political indoctrination would only happen in a totalitarian country.

Lien also accused the DPP of leading Taiwan farther and farther away from the goal of establishing a "quality democracy." No democratic country in the world has "smeared" and "marginalized" opposition parties "by hook or by crook" like the DPP has done, the KMT chairman said.

But officials at the Ministry of Education were quick to note that the offending textbooks were edited five years ago -- when the KMT was still in power.

They said it was unlikely that members of the ministry's textbook-editing committee were biased toward any political party or would deliberately cast the KMT in a false light.