Wed, Dec 01, 1999 page8

• Editorial: In memory of the Master

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  In a young political party like the DPP, Huang Hsin-chieh (黃信??/CHINESE>) was a rare kind of patriarch. He was a leading figure of the party's predecessor -- the "tangwai movement."

  His death yesterday, so close to the 20th anniversary of the Kaohsiung incident, also symbolizes the gradual fadeout of the earlier generation of activists involved in the struggles of those times.

  After the Kaohsiung incident, on Dec. 10, 1979, the Legislative Yuan -- acting on orders from the KMT -- voted to suspend Huang's constitutional immunity as a legislator to allow his arrest -- thereby writing one of the darkest pages in Taiwan's parliamentary history.

  Huang was the first lawmaker in Taiwan to be arrested on sedition charges, something that was perhaps his most outstanding badge of honor.

  Huang was born to a well-to-do family in Taipei during the Japanese colonial period. He attended high school in Japan and gained admission to Peking University, but his studies were interrupted by the civil war in China.

  He was elected to the Taipei City Council and then, in a supplementary election in 1969, he was elected to the legislature for life.

  Encouraged by his constitutional legislative immunity, Huang became even more committed to the tangwai movement.

  In August 1975, as the publisher of the Taiwan Political Review (台灣政?), Huang began to organize native politicians and intellectuals, and became a champion of the pro-democracy movement.

  From 1975 to 1979, he not only provided financial support to the tangwai movement, but also worked as the manager of the movement's election campaign. He played an important role in the blossoming of Taiwan's democracy movement.

  In August 1979, he launched Formosa magazine and used its branch offices across Taiwan to start organizing a political party.

  The KMT's heavy-handed response eventually led to the Kaohsiung incident, and Huang was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

  James Soong (宋楚瑜), who headed the Government Information Office at the time, led a thorough "disinfection" campaign against the tangwai movement. Ironically, he is now calling himself "an architect of democratic reform"; his popularity is a testament to the collective amnesia in Taiwanese society.

  An adept in lively language, Huang endeared countless audiences with his speeches, which were filled with metaphors and humor. He rarely touched the theoretical side of things, but he firmly grasped the basics of democracy and never flinched from realizing them.

  With a congenial and generously big heart, Huang won the nickname Hsin-chieh the Master (信?階P).

  He often helped as a mediator during disputes and, behind a seemingly bumbling exterior, often proved himself to be as wise as he was subtle.

  After the lifting of martial law, Huang became everyone's favorite in Taiwan's political arena. He refused to join the National Unification Council because he disagreed with the KMT's reunificationist ideology.

  However, he accepted the post of presidential advisor because he empathized with Lee Teng-hui's (李登輝) Taiwan-centered thinking, a kind of Lee Teng-hui complex that still exists within the DPP today.

  Despite his leading role in the opposition movement, Huang always stayed out of power struggles. However, Huang's natural knack for leadership always seemed to push him toward the role of the de facto helmsman, even in organizations that only presented him with nominal titles.

  Now the life of this versatile man has ended, but he will remain an eternal chairman for the DPP.
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