Veteran democracy activist Shih Ming-te (施明德) fought his whole life for a better and democratic Taiwan, taking on not only the former authoritarian government, but even his own party to hold those in power accountable.
Yesterday, on his birthday, Shih passed away after a years-long battle with cancer. He was 83.
Born in Kaohsiung in 1941, Shih experienced authoritarian rule firsthand when his father was arrested during a crackdown on anti-government protesters during the 228 Massacre in 1947.
Photo: CNA
After being released, his father fell ill and never recovered. He died when Shih was 11.
The massacre refers to a crackdown launched by the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime against demonstrators following the shooting of protesters by security personnel on Feb. 28, 1947, in Taipei. The protesters had demanded the arrest of those responsible for the killing of a bystander the day before. Tens of thousands of people were imprisoned or killed in the ensuing crackdown.
As a child, Shih witnessed the killing of students who resisted the KMT army. At the age of 18, he applied to join a military academy with the goal of using armed rebellion to overthrow then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) regime.
In 1962, while serving as an artillery officer in Kinmen County, he was implicated in a Taiwanese independence alliance case, arrested and sentenced to life in prison for inciting rebellion.
In prison, Shih was tortured and beaten. He was released in 1977 after Chiang’s death two years earlier, which prompted then-president Yen Chia-kan (嚴家淦) to order a reduction in prison sentences across the nation.
Immediately following his release, Shih became involved in the tangwai (黨外, “outside the party”) political movement, and in 1978, he served as its campaign team general director, advocating for judicial independence, as well as the lifting of martial law, and the ban on forming new political parties and news publications.
On Dec. 10, 1979, Shih was arrested along with other leaders in a pro-democracy demonstration that became known as the Kaohsiung Incident. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for the second time for his role in the demonstration.
At the military trial in 1980, Shih said that Taiwan faced four major obstacles hindering its path to democracy: the prohibition on forming new political parties, the ban on independent news publications, martial law and the absence of legislative elections.
He also said that Taiwan should be independent, and had been for more than 30 years under the name the Republic of China.
In 1983 and 1984, Shih went on hunger strikes in prison over the deaths of Taiwanese-American writer Henry Liu (江南) and Taiwanese academic Chen Wen-chen (陳文成), with some suspecting the deaths were linked to KMT security agencies.
During his hunger strikes, which he carried out off and on over a period of four years and seven months, Shih was frequently sent to the prison hospital and force-fed.
On July 15, 1987, Taiwan lifted martial law, which had been in place for 38 years. Then-president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) had planned to reduce Shih’s sentence, but Shih refused, insisting he was not guilty and demanding unconditional release.
He was eventually released in 1990 during president Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) tenure after Lee revoked the verdicts against those involved in the Kaohsiung Incident.
Shih served as a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker from 1993 to 2002, and as a one-term chairman of the party from December 1993 to March 1996.
He also advocated for universal direct elections through public voting, which was not achieved until 1996.
His stance as DPP chair in calling for a united government and pushing for cross-party reconciliation between the pro-independence DPP and pro-unification KMT, as well as the New Party, soon made him an enemy within his party.
In 2000, the election of president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) ended more than half a century of KMT rule. Shih considered leaving politics, but Chen persuaded him to stay.
Nevertheless, Shih began to drift away from the DPP. In 2006, he led a large-scale protest campaign against Chen, who was then embroiled in corruption charges.
Despite being an outcast in his party, he continued protesting Chen, who was eventually found guilty and sentenced to prison.
In 2015, Shih made his last political push by announcing he was running for president as an independent. He proposed a “Greater China Framework” to push for cross-strait peace between China and Taiwan. He withdrew his presidential bid after failing to collect the required 300,000 signatures within 45 days of announcing his candidacy.
Friends of Shih have said he spent his entire life searching for “pure truth,” which made him a “god of war-like figure” during the Martial Law era.
However, after martial law, he was unable to fulfill his political aspirations without the backing of his party.
POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT: Japan and the US are expected to hold in-depth discussions on Taiwan-related issues during the meeting next month, Japanese sources said The holding of a Japan-US leaders’ meeting ahead of US President Donald Trump’s visit to China is positive news for Taiwan, former Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association representative Hiroyasu Izumi said yesterday. After the Liberal Democratic Party’s landslide victory in Japan’s House of Representatives election, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is scheduled to visit the US next month, where she is to meet with Trump ahead of the US president’s planned visit to China from March 31 to April 2 for a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Japan and the US are expected to hold in-depth discussions on Taiwan-related issues during the
‘LIKE-MINDED PARTNER’: Tako van Popta said it would be inappropriate to delay signing the deal with Taiwan because of China, adding he would promote the issue Canadian senators have stressed Taiwan’s importance for international trade and expressed enthusiasm for ensuring the Taiwan-Canada trade cooperation framework agreement is implemented this year. Representative to Canada Harry Tseng (曾厚仁) in an interview with the Central News Agency (CNA) said he was increasingly uneasy about Ottawa’s delays in signing the agreement, especially as Ottawa has warmed toward Beijing. There are “no negotiations left. Not only [is it] initialed, we have three versions of the text ready: English, French and Mandarin,” Tseng said. “That tells you how close we are to the final signature.” Tseng said that he hoped Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday bestowed one of Taiwan’s highest honors on Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) Ambassador Andrea Clare Bowman in recognition of her contributions to bilateral ties. “By conferring the Order of Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon on Ambassador Bowman today, I want to sincerely thank her, on behalf of the Taiwanese people, for her outstanding contribution to deepening diplomatic ties between Taiwan and SVG,” Lai said at a ceremony held at the Presidential Office in Taipei. He noted that Bowman became SVG’s first ambassador to Taiwan in 2019 and
A man walks past elementary school artworks at the Taipei Lantern Festival in Ximen District yesterday, the first day of the event. The festival is to run from 5pm to 10pm through March 15.
RSS