Thu, Dec 30, 1999 page8

• Some thoughts on the Kaohsiung Incident

  • Lee Shai-feng 李筱峰
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  "Ten minus five equals five" is a mathematical equation. But if we get rid of five out of 10 political dissidents, the answer is not necessarily five. Political issues can not be regarded as math equations. The Kaohsiung Incident, which happened 20 years ago, explains this theory very clearly.

  The KMT authorities thought that they could use coercive power to suppress the tangwai (登輝) -- the opposition in Taiwan before the founding of the Democratic Progressive Party (民進黨) -- and the newly unfolding democratic movement would collapse. To their surprise, the crackdown received intense media coverage, prompting the trial to be conducted in an open military court.

  The event, also unexpectedly, aroused awareness of the need for reform within the political system. The trials brought to the forefront human right lawyers and the families of the victims, many of whom took over the mission of politicalreforms and played major roles in the democratic movement later on.

  The DPP, founded in 1986, brought together the tangwai forces and made them the first political opposition party in Taiwan. This development was totally unexpected by the KMT, who believed the opposition could be wiped out by suppression.

  Another lesson is that individuals with hindsight should not stamp out the farsighted.

  What the staff members of the Formosa magazine (美麗島雜誌) and their predecessors pursued were basic rights in a democratic country, such as ending martial law, lifting the ban on the formation of political parties, lifting restrictions on newspapers, and promoting the freedom of speech.

  These objectives, which were labeled as the conspiracies of "ambitious schemers" 20 years ago, were subsequently carried out in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Then how should we characterize these reformers? Should they be called "ambitious schemers" or "farsighted?"

  It is reasonable to be one of the people who are slow in seeing things. Yet if you happen to be one of the slow ones, then you probably try to suppress farsighted ideas by any means. Sometime later, however, you might realize that the farsighted people's ideas were actually good and you start to follow in their footsteps. This is not only embarrassing, it also delays progress.

  We can find numerous examples of this in Chinese history. One of the most well known is the Constitutional Reform and Mod-ernization Movement(維新變法) initiated by Kang Yo-wei (康有為) and Liang Chi-chao (梁啟超) in 1898. The movement was suppressed by conservatives led by Empress Dowager Tsu Hsi (慈禧); six of its leaders were killed. Two years later, the Allied Forces attacked China to suppress the anti-imperialist Boxer Rebellion (義和團). Old-fashioned Chinese weapons could not withstand modern arms. China was utterly routed and the empress fled Beijing.

  Tsu Hsi, astonished by the progress of Western civilization, finally realized the need for reform. She even released an imperial edict to acknowledge her blunder. It came as little surprise that Tsu Hsi's reforms were almost identical to those called for by Liang and Kang.

  Tsu Hsi's embarrassing experience reminds me a lot of James Soong (宋楚瑜). Soong was one of the major suppressors after the Kaohsiung Incident, but now he suddenly calls himself a "reformer" and "a democrat."

  The difference between Tsu Hsi and Soong is that at least Tsu Hsi was courageous enough to admit her mistakes. The only thing Soong has done is to shift his own responsibilities onto others.

  There is no denying that the calls from the era of the Formosa magazine are now considered natural and correct political trends. If this is the way it should be, what was the point of creating all the fuss in the past? By the same logic, farsighted requests such as entering the UN under the name of "Taiwan" and establishing a new and independent country are still thwarted by the KMT and the New Party (including the Soong camp).

  Instead of accepting the calls only after they become compelling, we should embrace good ideas as they come about.

  Lee Shai-feng is a professor in the Department of History at Shih Hsin University.
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