President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday called on Taiwanese to have the courage to safeguard their hard-earned freedom and democracy during commemorations for the 60th anniversary of the “Declaration of Formosan Self-Salvation” by democracy pioneer Peng Ming-min (彭明敏).
Today Taiwanese have firmly embraced freedom, human rights and democratic values, and international communities have endorsed Taiwan’s numerous achievements, Lai said in his keynote address at the conference in Taipei.
“What we have today are the results of Taiwan’s democracy movement through the past six decades,” Lai said. “Early democracy leaders fought against dictatorship and harsh authoritarian rule, passing on the torch to new generations of democracy activists.”
Photo: CNA
He cited the many difficult struggles to win the right to organize opposition political parties, freedoms of the media and expression, the abolition of the ban on free assembly and the lifting of martial law.
Democracy activists fought for the right to directly elect the president by popular vote, and changed legislative seats from representing all regions of China to representing Taiwan, he said.
Peng, a professor at National Taiwan University, was among the earliest to advocate for Taiwanese democracy and nationalism.
Together with his students Hsieh Tsung-min (謝聰敏) and Wei Ting-chao (魏廷朝), they drafted the “Declaration of Formosan Self-Salvation” in 1964.
The document called Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) dream of “retaking China” unattainable and advocated for a “one Taiwan, one China,” multiparty democracy, election of the president by popular vote, a new constitution and protections for human rights and freedoms.
“People at the time lived under a dark age of authoritarianism, with repression against citizens and violation of rights under martial rule,” Lai said.
“Peng and his students Hsieh and Wei risked their lives to release the declaration. It is a great action for us to commemorate, and had a profound influence on the course of Taiwan’s democracy movement,” he added.
Although the era of the KMT ruling the country as a one-party state is no more, Taiwan is facing a more serious threat from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regime with real consequences for the nation’s freedom and democratic system, Lai said.
“Peng exposed the lies of KMT leaders and their dream of ‘retaking China through military reconquest’ so that these days, we have the courage to expose the lies of the CCP regime, whose propaganda calls for military action to take over Taiwan,” Lai said.
After re-reading Peng’s declaration, Lai said Taiwan’s democracy movement is still ongoing, as there are more aims yet to be attained.
Most of the concepts outlined six decades ago are still ongoing, “so we must continue to push for those stated values and aims ... to uphold our democracy and freedom and build a prosperous society together so future generations can enjoy the fruits derived from past struggles for freedom and democracy,” he said.
After serving time in prison and later under house arrest, Peng fled Taiwan in 1970 with a forged passport with the help of foreign friends, becoming a political exile for more than two decades.
He returned to Taiwan in 1992 to work with democracy activists and was the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) candidate in the first directly elected presidential election in 1996.
Peng passed away on April 8, 2022.
Despite being imprisoned by the KMT twice for a combined 13 years, Hsieh continued his democracy activism and later served as a legislator for the DPP.
Wei also served a combined 17 years and three months in prison and fought for Taiwan’s democracy throughout his life.
Hsieh passed away in 2019, while Wei died of a stroke in 1999.
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