Academy aims to school leaders in democratic politics

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) is scheduled to attend and address the opening ceremony today of a school he has founded to "nurture the future leaders of the nation."

Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), who is one of the lecturers at the academy, is also expected to attend the opening ceremony.

Ketagalan Academy president and former Presidential Office secretary-general Chen Shih-meng (陳師孟) introduced the new school to the media prior to its opening yesterday, saying that the name of the school implies respect for the Aboriginal people of Taiwan.

To highlight its indigenous features, the school's administrative office -- located on the 12th floor of a new building at Chungching North Road -- has a counter made of slabstone used by some Aboriginal people in their traditional arts.

Academy vice president You Ying-lung (游盈隆) said that the first intake of students will have courses such as: the art of national leadership, the pursuit and establishment of Taiwan values and the machinery of governmental and constitutional reforms in an era when the party is no longer synonymous with the state.

One-third of the students enrolled are members of the DPP and 80 percent of them hold a masters degree or a doctorate.

The average age of the students is 42 years, with women -- including Government Information Office Deputy Director-General Lee Cher-jean (李雪津) -- accounting for 14 of the 40 class members class.

Large photographs of significant events and people in the spread of democracy are displayed on the walls of the administrative office. Those photographs include images of former South African president Nelson Mandela and Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi.

The collection also includes the iconic photograph of a lone pro-democracy activist standing defiantly in front of a Chinese army tank during the Tiananmen Square protests of June 4, 1989.