End the ROC government
Kao Yu-jen (高育仁), the former chairman of the Taiwan Provincial Assembly, at a conference in the middle of April said he loves Taiwan. Since Kao has long been a senior Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member, I was curious to know; how does he love Taiwan? I gave him some information about Taiwan’s sovereignty and my published articles for him to look at.
There was a weekly interview with Kao in the July 8 issue of the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). Kao expressed great concerned about Taiwan’s future. He talked about the process of democratic development in Taiwan over the past 25 years. We should take his comments seriously.
He thinks political parties, the media and public officials should be held directly responsible for Taiwan’s democratic development. As for public officials, “we especially need leaders with the conscience, wisdom and capabilities to withstand the tests history teaches us will come and people who are working for the good of the whole nation,” he said.
“Whether Taiwan’s democratic ideals can grow to maturity is dependent on the democratic awakening of its people. However, it will need a sound support system... We need to face the fact that our constitution is under an anti-democratic law; our referendum policy is under an anti-referendum law. Unless we can solve these problems, we can only take the route of revolution,” he said.
Review our national leaders over the past 25 years, look at former president Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) 12 years, former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) eight years and President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) five years — are they leaders who have showed good knowledge, wisdom, unselfish leadership? Are people disappointed with them? When you think about this issue, do you feel cheated?
Kao called for a sound system for the future, to amend the constitution and for a reorganization of the government, including reforming the legislature. This will not accomplish much if all of these are still under the Republic of China’s (ROC) system. It is just like remodeling a dilapidated, illegal old house by patching it up. It is still very dangerous. It is safer to demolish the old house, lay the right foundation for living together and build a new house.
The right way is to take the revolutionary route without bloodshed, to draw a line between ROC and Taiwan (as my late husband, C.C. Yang (楊基銓) wrote 15 years ago), to follow historical facts and principles of international law, to do away with the ROC government in exile and its institution and to establish our own country.
We will need the help of others as well as self-help, plus divine intervention in order to achieve this goal.
Yang Liu Hsiu-hwa
Taipei
Milo Thornberry has stroke
Milo Thornberry (唐培禮), a US missionary who worked in Taiwan in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and who published his memoirs about his time in Taiwan, titled Fireproof Moth, had a stroke in April. His wife, Connie, wrote about it in an e-mail.
Since some of your readers know of Thornberry’s work from a number of news stories, interviews and book reviews that have appeared in the Taipei Times (and the Liberty Times) over the past few years, they may want to know of his condition.
Connie Thornberry’s e-mail reads: “Milo had a major stroke with damage to his speech, memory, physical abilities and vision. This is all very terrible for a man of intelligence and graciousness and who is so concerned about Taiwan and its future.”
“He’s currently doing speech, vision, physical and occupational out-patient therapies here in Oregon, and he may regain some of his health. But, of course, our lives have changed dramatically,” she wrote.
“Often strokes damage only one side but he got a double whammy out of his. He’s come a long way since April and we’re very grateful for that. He has accepted it with the grace that makes him so much ‘Milo,’ and we’re hoping for enough restoration that he can become interested in at least most of what he was aware before,” she wrote.
Name withheld
Taipei
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