Mon, Nov 03, 2008 page3

• CROSS-STRAIT TALKS: Activists form anti-communist corps

  AWAKENING PAST SLOGANS The Taiwanese Youth Anti-Communist National Salvation Corps convenor said the group was formed because Ma is too close to Beijing

  • By Loa Iok-Sin / STAFF REPORTER
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  Singing patriotic songs from the Martial Law Era and shouting anti-communist slogans popular during former dictator Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) reign, a group of pro-independence activists officially inaugurated the Taiwanese Youth Anti-Communist National Salvations Corps yesterday.

  “Down with Russian bandits, we’re against communism. We’re against communism. Destroy Zhu and Mao, we’ll kill the traitors. We’ll kill the traitors,” the group sang at a press conference in Taipei yesterday.

  “Mao” in the lyrics refers to former Chinese Communist Party (CCP) chairman Mao Zedong (毛澤東), while “Zhu” refers to Zhu De (朱德), a key CCP leader in the 1950s.

  Following the songs, they shouted slogans from the Chiang era: “We’ll be victorious in the battle against the communists. We’ll succeed in building our nation.”

  The group said there were using the old anti-communist songs and slogans to remind President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who will meet with China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) during his visit to Taiwan, about the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) firm anti-communist stance in the past.

  “Ma Ying-jeou, have you forgotten all these songs and slogans?” asked Jim Lee (李筱峰), one of the group’s initiators and a Taiwanese culture professor at the National Taipei University of Education.

  Besides the songs and slogans, the group also gets its name from the China Youth Anti-Communist National Salvations Corps that was founded by Chiang in 1952.

  Paul Lin (林保華), a political commentator and the group’s convener, explained that he proposed the creation of the group because he was concerned that Ma was getting too close to China too quickly and that Taiwan’s sovereignty and Taiwanese people’s hard-earned freedoms and democracy may be compromised.

  “Some people say that the CCP has changed and the anti-communist era [in Taiwan] has passed, but I say the CCP has only opened up its economy and it is still repressing the rights and freedoms of its people and threatening Taiwan, so we cannot stop voicing our opposition to the regime,” Lee said.

  Ellen Huang (黃越綏), former presidential advisor and a political analyst, agreed.

  “Capitalism and communism are just ideologies and there’s nothing wrong with following either of them — but I cannot tolerate a regime that uses communism as a cover for its authoritarian rule,” she said. “That’s why I joined the organization.”

  Meanwhile, at a separate press conference yesterday, a group of Tibetans living in Taiwan, accompanied by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇), warned on the dangers of entering an agreement with China.

  Eight years before the 1959 uprising and the subsequent bloody repression by the Chinese military, the Tibetan and Chinese delegations had signed a 17-point agreement in which China promised to leave Tibet alone with high degree of autonomy, religious freedom and the right to live as they wanted.

  “A promise by the Chinese was broken within a decade for the Tibetans. I urge Ma to be very careful when negotiating with the CCP and not to be naive. Otherwise Taiwan may become the next Tibet,” Tien said. “I’d also like to ask our government officials to mention the Tibetan issue during their meeting with Chen, because as a democratic country that values human rights, it’s our responsibility to care for others who are suffering.”
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