Prominent software developer Cheng Yi-ting (鄭伊廷) earlier this week posted on social media a comment saying that former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was a visionary hated by “ignorant people” — including Cheng herself — during his time in office.
Cheng is the founder and owner of RocoDev and previously led a programming team who won the grand prize in the Facebook Developer World Hack 2012, a global competition hosted by the social media giant.
In a Facebook post that on Monday was reposted on Professional Technology Temple (PTT), the nation’s largest academic online bulletin board, Cheng said that “ignorant people, my former college student-self included,” hated Chen for being “radical” because the former president was “way ahead of his time and dedicated to breaking the inertia of the public.”
Cheng said she previously derided policies that Chen introduced during his presidency, such as introducing Taiwanese history and geography education at primary schools, and passports with the word “Taiwan” on the cover.
It was her previous belief that Chen was “provoking the international community ... destroying the nation’s foundations ... and causing deviant historical perspectives,” the post said.
“After I grew up, I realized I was ignorant. Super ignorant. What Chen did was right, and what the country needed. He saw the future and dared to make policies for it,” she said.
“Most of us only realized 10 years after the fact that he was a badass and made a lot of contributions to society, which is why he was hated by ignorant people,” she wrote.
PTT users overwhelmingly supported the post with comments such as: “Young and ignorant plus [me]” and “without [Chen], unification would have happened about now.”
The former president was sentenced to 20 years in prison on a series of corruption charges that surfaced shortly after his second term in office ended in 2008. He was also fined NT$250 million (US$7.57 million).
He began serving his sentence on Nov. 11, 2010, but he had been detained for nearly two years prior to that.
Chen was granted medical parole in early January.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS