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Presidential election 2008: 14 days to go: Youth ignorant of history, forum says

Ignorance of Taiwanese history is behind young people's indifference to politics, foreign speakers said yesterday at a Taiwan Society sponsored function.

American Jerome Keating said that young people born in the 1980s or later have no sense of history beyond the last 10 years.

"They were born after the martial law era and have little understanding and experience of life under the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT]," he said.

Keating urged youngsters to study the history of Taiwan, which he said spans at least 5,000 years.

He said the pan-blue controlled media were responsible for deceiving the young about the KMT.

Keating said the controversy over government special allowance funds, for example, was not the fault of the Democratic Progressive Party, but rather "a leftover problem embedded in the system" created by the KMT.

Coen Blaauw, the executive director of the Washington-based pro-Taiwan group Formosan Association for Public Relations, said he had discovered during his two-week campus tour that most young people were confused about their nationality.

"Many young people in Taiwan take freedom for granted. We must urge young people to get involved and be proud of Taiwan," he said.

He also accused the KMT of perpetuating misunderstandings about Taiwan.

Recalling a trip to St. Kitts and Nevis last year, Blaauw said many Kittians thought the aid they received from the Republic of China had come from China.

Such misunderstandings are "unacceptable," he said.
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