Sat, Jul 14, 2001 page1

• DPP engages in spin control over Hitler ad

  GROWING CONTROVERSY Deluged by complaints from within Taiwan and overseas, the DPP is trying to pass off the outrage over its new TV advertising campaign as a simple misunderstanding by foreigners

  • By Chuang Chi-ting / STAFF REPORTER
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  The DPP yesterday defended using images of Adolf Hitler in its new TV advertisement, saying those who oppose it "lack an understanding of the commercial's context." The party also ruled out canceling the advertising campaign.

  "It's regrettable that some Jewish organizations and the Israel Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei distorted and misunderstood the film's intention," DPP spokesperson Phoenix Cheng (鄭運鵬) said yesterday.

  The DPP, he said, absolutely empathizes with the past suffering of Jewish people because "Tai-wanese suffered from great oppression as well."

  Cheng also accused the commercial's detractors of not actually having seen the ad for themselves.

  "Even if they had done so, they cannot understand the context in which we put Hitler due to the language barrier," he said.

  "There is nothing wrong with the film but it contains messages that foreigners cannot under-stand," Cheng said.

  "The film was made for local Mandarin-speaking viewers who would never object to it as they have sufficient understanding of what we are trying to promote," he said.

  But while the DPP was busy explaining itself, negative reaction to the commercial was rapidly spreading.

  In New York, the Anti-Defamation League called the commercial ``outrageous and shocking'' and urged the DPP to withdraw it.

  The private group, devoted to fighting prejudice and bigotry, also accused the DPP of a ``woeful lapse in judgment.''

  The Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights group, said it lodged a protest with Taiwan's representative to Washington.

  "In the era of globalization, this historic and cultural insensitivity is no longer acceptable and damages the image of Taiwan," Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the center, said in a statement.

  The party yesterday reversed its earlier explanation for using Hitler's image.

  Originally, the DPP's information and culture department, along with the youth department, said that figures in the film were chosen because of "their daringness to speak up without fear of confrontation," an ideal which the party said it urged the nation's youth to follow.

  Other political figures who appear in the commercial include former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), the late US president John F. Kennedy and Cuban President Fidel Castro.

  However, no explanation of what the images should mean is given in the commercial.

  Tien Hsin (田欣), the DPP's director of international affairs, offered another explanation.

  "The commercial is designed to tell the youth that it is their time to speak up, rather than let outdated political figures speak for them," he said.

  Cheng said yesterday that the commercial "intends to give viewers an idea that the false political stance of Hitler and Castro and that of Lee and Kennedy, are of two different extremes."

  Juan Chao-hsiung (阮昭雄), director of the youth department, added his interpretation -- that the commercial discourages youths involved in public forums from following Hitler's ideals.

  The party also argued yesterday that if members of the Jewish community had communicated with them before reacting, the "misunderstanding would never have occurred."

  Cheng said that the German Cultural Center in Taipei, to which the party had spoken, fully understood the DPP's argument and did not subsequently file a complaint.

  However Sabine Hagemann-Unlusoy, the center's director, said she was never offered an explanation such as the one the DPP gave yesterday.

  She added that some Germans have watched the commercial and failed to find the contrast that the party said it intended to present.

  "Besides, Hitler's negative characteristics can never be clearly explained in such a short commercial," she said.

  E.F. Einhorn, a Polish rabbi residing in Taipei, said the DPP was merely trying to assign explanations to get out of trouble, which is a "normal defensive reaction."

  Einhorn said after watching such a film, young people would only group Hitler with "sound" political figures like Kennedy and Lee, while ignoring any positive messages the party wanted to convey.

  For your information

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