Led by Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫堃), Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials yesterday called on the public to safeguard Taiwan’s democracy and freedom at a book launch in Taipei to mark the party’s founding more than three decades ago.
You is one of the main political figures documented in the book titled Breaking the Party Ban 1986: Ten Key Days in the Founding of the DPP (衝破黨禁1986：民進黨創黨關鍵十日紀實), which details the process leading to the party’s founding at the Grand Hotel in Taipei on Sept. 28, 1986, and the key events that took place 10 days afterwards.
“The democratic society and the freedom we enjoy now must not be taken for granted. They did not fall from the sky like gifts, but were the product of the struggles and sacrifices of many democracy activists, some of whom were imprisoned, while others lost their lives,” You said in a keynote speech.
Photo: CNA
“We must cherish these hard-won rights and liberties... We must work hard to safeguard and defend these values,” he added.
The title refers to the ban imposed by the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government on the formation of political parties, along with the prohibitions on newspapers and magazines, which were tightly monitored by the KMT regime.
The DPP’s founding was a watershed moment in Taiwan’s history — in its transformation from an authoritarian state into a flourishing democracy, You said.
The book details accounts from other DPP founders, such as their renting an auditorium at the hotel and paying for it on the pretext that the assembly was being held to set up a Taiwan-wide support group to help dangwai (黨外, “outside the party”) candidates campaigning in the local elections.
During the assembly meeting presided over by You, participants discussed and announced the formation of a political party, the DPP, which caught KMT officials by surprise, including then-president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), the book says.
The book details the key developments in the following days, as top government officials and KMT-controlled newspapers initially called for a crackdown, saying the DPP had defied the party ban. Meanwhile, DPP founding members, while fearing arrest, openly called for negotiations with the KMT.
With international news coverage of the DPP’s founding, pressure from the US government and efforts by overseas Taiwanese organizations for liberalization, Chiang at a Cabinet meeting said: “Times are changing, the situation is changing,” and decided against arresting DPP founders, the book says.
Chiang said in an interview with the Washington Post on Oct. 8, 1986, that Taiwan would move toward lifting Martial Law and the ban on political parties.
Martial Law, which was imposed on May 19, 1949, was lifted on July 15, 1987.
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