Today marks the 15th anniversary of the death of former president Chiang Ching-kuo (
In the run-up to the occasion, both the KMT and the PFP have been battling to grab their own share of Chiang's limelight as each of the parties launched a series of events to commemorate one of Taiwan's most influential figures.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
Chiang inherited the reins of power following the death of his father, Chiang Kai-shek, (蔣介石) in 1975 and ruled until his own death in 1988. The pan-blue camp gives Chiang the younger much of the credit for Taiwan's transformation from dusty backwater to economic and democratic powerhouse.
Taking the early initiative, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), in his capacity as a member of the KMT's Central Standing Committee, gave a presentation last Wednesday during the committee's weekly meeting commenting on the legacy of Chiang.
Ma served as English secretary to Chiang during Chiang's presidency.
The presentation was followed by two commemorative concerts, titled "CCK, Taiwan misses you" and "Those good old days when people were full of hope," staged by the party over the weekend. CCK are the initials for Chiang Ching-kuo.
KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) has also penned a 4,000-word commemorative article in memory of Chiang. The article is to be printed today in various Chinese-language newspapers, according to Lien.
The PFP, meanwhile, kicked off a commemorative event of its own and also held a roundtable conference on Saturday, hosted by PFP Chairman James Soong (
Chin Heng-wei (金恆煒), a political observer and editor in chief of Contemporary Monthly magazine, said that there is more to these moves than simply commemoration, and buried inside last week's events lies a hidden political agenda.
Both parties are attempting to cash in on Chiang's image to help bolster party support, Chin said.
The events serve two main political purposes, according to Chin.
"By saying that Chiang is their spiritual leader and icon, the KMT is trying to sever ties with Lee Teng-hui (
Chin was referring to Lee's recent statement praising Chiang as one of the pioneers of Taiwan's localization and democratization and criticizing the KMT for moving away from Chiang's path, almost turning itself into a communist party in the process.
"It is through their series of talks commemorating Chiang that the KMT wants to tell the public that the party, which looks to Chiang as its spiritual leader, represents the good old times and a healthy economy while Lee represents negative images such as `black gold' and independence ideals," Chin said.
"However this is all quite ironic," added Chin. "The KMT has been asking Lee to step out of the public eye for a long time now, but now that he [Lee] is no longer the president anymore, the KMT is eager to back Chiang, a man who does not enjoy much positive public recognition."
Chin said that another reason for holding commemorative talks is to persuade the public that the KMT did follow the path and ideals of Chiang.
"Both the KMT and the PFP are competing with each other to tell the public that it is the political party that has best upheld Chiang's ideals," Chin said.
Gone awol
Noting that Soong did not show up at the KMT-sponsored commemorative concerts over the weekend, Chin said that his absence shows that despite talk of pan-blue cooperation, the struggle over which party holds the upper hand and is the best representative of Chiang's ideals continues to be a sticking point.
Last weekend's commemorative concert was seen as an opportunity to showcase pan-blue unity in the run-up to the 2004 presidential election. New Party Chairman Yok Mu-ming (郁慕明) showed up at the KMT's invitation but Soong, though on the KMT's invitation list, did not.
"Chairman Soong didn't go because it was the KMT's event. We [the PFP] have our own commemorative events as it is," PFP spokesman Hsieh Kong-ping (謝公秉) told the Taipei Times, adding that in addition to Saturday's roundtable conference to mark Chiang's death, Soong will today visit the mausoleum of Chiang in Touliao, Taoyuan County.
Ger Yeong-kuang (
"Being a leader of a political party, I think that Soong needs to demonstrate to his party members that the PFP has its own autonomy and is its own boss," Ger told the Taipei Times. "That is maybe why Soong chose not to attend the event but went ahead and organized his party's own event in memory of Chiang," he added.
Chin said that in a long run, jumping on the Chiang bandwagon will only serve to harm the KMT and the PFP as it reminds the public that Chiang's reign was an era of military dictatorship and White Terror.
Ger, however, disagreed and said that Chiang's image would be a plus to the pan-blue camp as it will give the public nostalgia for the good old days when the economy was doing well and the social order was sound.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not