Scholars from the Czech Republic and Taiwan yesterday pondered the challenges faced by eastern European and Taiwanese societies in their uneasy transition towards a mature civil society and democracy.
At a one-day seminar held atTamkang University, Tomas Halik, head of the department of religious studies at Charles University in Prague, reviewed the civil societies in central and eastern Europe before and after the end of the Cold War.
While traditional churches were persecuted by the Soviet-installed regimes throughout eastern Europe during the Cold War, they served what Halik termed as a "link" for free-thinking intellectuals and discontented workers -- especially in the case of the powerful Polish Catholic church.
But the end of the Cold War -- along with the emerging trend of globalization -- has changed the instrumental social role the traditional churches once played, said Halik, who is also an external adviser to Czech President Vaclav Havel.
The various forces under the umbrella of globalization have also changed the dynamic ties between church and state, said Halik, a former dissident when his country was still under the grip of the Soviet regime.
"The church has ceased to be the exclusive representative of religion in the same way that the state has ceased to have a monopoly in the political spheres," said Halik.
Halik argued that the penetrating power of the media in the world of globalization has sometimes dictated and dominated the public agenda on an unprecedented scale.
"The media plays the role of the traditional religion," Halik said.
Another Havel adviser, Jiri Pehe -- director of New York University in Prague -- pointed to the emerging vibrant dialogue on the Internet as a contributing new venue for political discussion and for development of a transnational civil society.
"If there is anything that can be of help in the formation of a global civil society, that would be this," said Pehe, referring to what he called the new forms of civil society that have emerged in cyberspace.
The Czech scholar said through communications on the Internet, many anti-globalization activists have endeavored to arrange effective protests during the World Bank and IMF meetings in Prague back in 2000.
"Tens of thousands of demonstrations were all organized through the Internet," Pehe recalled.
Also at the seminar, Michael Hsiao (蕭新煌), research fellow from Academia Sinica as well as national policy adviser to the president, gave an overview of civil society development in Taiwan.
Hsiao said that although the ruling DPP has had longstanding ties with some non-governmental organizations and social activists in the past, these civic groups have endeavored to "keep a distance" from the DPP since it became the ruling party in 2000 so as to maintain their autonomy.
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