"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 (
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 (
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(
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 (
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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