Soong: I don’t want to be involved in an individual case, but generally speaking, from where it stands today, Taiwan’s democracy has made us proud, but there also have been some unpleasant individual cases that hopefully will become history.
I hope that the mobilization of party, government, military and special services, as well as all the five yuan [Executive Yuan, Legislative Yuan, Judicial Yuan, Control Yuan and Examination Yuan], against me during the 2000 presidential election will never again happen in future Taiwanese elections.
To quote KMT heavyweight Chiu Chuang-huan (邱創煥), whom I respect very much, jian ting ze cong, jian shi ze ming** (兼聽則聰，兼視則明), meaning that if you keep your eyes and ears open, you will see and hear much. I just hope the word jian [meaning simultaneously] is not confused with the homonym for “eavesdropping” (jian, 監) [laughs].
We need to listen to the people more, and listen often to different opinions. Recently, every newspaper published an essay that earned full score on the Basic Competence Test for Junior High School Students, and there were two sentences in the essay that moved me very much.
What we really need is to listen to different opinions, but [that is not to say that] we should not hold to our own opinions.
LT: With what words would you wish to conclude this interview?
Soong: I was acquainted with former World United Formosans for Independence chairman George Chang (張燦鍙) when he was Tainan mayor, and he readily identified with one saying of mine, which is that “we may come from [a] different past, but we share a common future.”
We have different opinions, but we all love Taiwan, [and we’re] all fighting for the same land. We might have different political ideals, but we should have a common goal and that is to uphold Taiwanese values.
Because we all grew up here, we have the same friends, the same connections, the same ideals, and no matter how different our opinions are, we must admit that we only have one Taiwan, a Taiwan that we mutually share [with one another].
TRANSLATED BY JAKE CHUNG, STAFF WRITER
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