Fri, Mar 09, 2001 page12

• The media should be much more constructive

  • By Chen Ro-jinn 陳柔縉
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  In the ocean of politics, every politician in Taiwan used to be portrayed as a "good fish" by local media -- not only when the Chiang (蔣) family was in power, but also in the early days of Lee Teng-hui's (李登輝) presidency.

  This was as much a political as a media phenomenon, as all published news related to politicians had to be good news. Any magazine that dared to reveal politicians' darker sides risked being banned by the intelligence agencies. Any negative news that was published was deliberately spread under the authorization of top government officials as a way of punishing one person in order to warn others.

  All politicians were well-protected in the past. The media was just like their dressing tables and they even provided free cosmetics so that each politician could look attractive. Thus, the rulers would try to portray their domination in a favorable light, and no attacks on the government were allowed. Today, by contrast, anyone who goes into politics places himself right next to the volcano and can expect to be burned.

  Academia Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲), a Nobel laureate, was savaged when he supported DPP presidential candidate Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in last year's election. After the distinguished writer Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) was invited by Taipei City Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to head the city's Cultural Affairs Bureau, she was, labeled a right-wing politician. Senior adviser to the president Shi Wen-lung (許文龍) used to be portrayed as a successful, cultured, businessman. When, in the past, he called on the government to cut its budget, the local media respectfully echoed his words. Not long after he openly supported Lee and Chen, however, he began to be attacked repeatedly. The recent controversy over comfort women has almost destroyed his image entirely. Even DPP legislators have criticized and insulted him heartlessly for his remarks.

  Let's get to the root of the problem. People in Taiwan still cannot transcend the ethnic divide. Due to their hostility towards each other, when people from the pro-China camp heard Shi's words -- that comfort women became sex slaves voluntarily -- they were not willing to listen to his explanation. Shi might have over-generalized, by only citing his neighbor's experience of becoming a comfort woman. On the other hand, can the Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation's (婦女救援基金會) conclusion, drawn from 68 comfort women who testified that they were indeed deceived and forced by the Japanese troops to perform sex services, reflect the experiences of the 2,000 to 3,000 Taiwanese comfort women?

  The pro-unification and pro-independence camps should try to understand and to communicate with each other instead of adding fuel to the fire. Unfortunately, politicians still support nationalism and look down on the special connections to Japan that some elderly people in Taiwan still have.

  There are those people in Taiwan who have always considered themselves Chinese. They always use nationalism as a weapon to brutally destroy those who disagree with them. None of us knows how the conflicts between the two camps will eventually end. At least, however, we should allow people with different loyalties to reveal their feelings, their experiences and their thoughts. People should not be despised for speaking sincerely. Meanwhile, the media should stick to their most important task of exposing the faults of the government, instead of dancing along with nationalism.

  If the media can do so, less harm will be caused to Taiwan's elite, and more community leaders will participate in politics, so that we can avoid a situation in which the bad outnumber the good.

  Chen Ro-jinn is a freelance writer.

  Translated by Eddy Chang

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