Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

INTERVIEW: Deng Nan-jung widow resists comparisons to suicide bomber, teens

Taipei Times

The anti-change, conservative forces in Taiwanese society have never gone away and have prevented democracy from taking root in the seemingly democratized nation, former Presidential Office secretary-general Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭) says.

The widow of democracy activist Deng Nan-jung (鄭南榕), who has recently become the center of media attention following a controversy over naming a plaza at National Cheng Kung University, made the remarks in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) on Saturday.

No response to Ma’s unmet promises

Taipei Times Editorial

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is doing it again: After his failure to deliver on his “6-3-3” campaign pledge — 6 percent annual GDP growth, an unemployment rate of less than 3 percent and US$30,000 annual per capita income — his failure to donate half of his salary as he had said he would if he fell short of the “6-3-3” targets, his failure to seek compensation from Beijing for the damage caused to Taiwanese firms in 2008 over the imports of melamine-tainted milk products, and his broken promise of not doubling as president and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman, Ma is adding another item to his list of broken campaign pledges.

Richard Bush warns on PRC coercion

Taipei Times

The greatest danger facing Taiwan is intimidation from China, former American Institute in Taiwan chairman Richard Bush said in Washington on Tuesday.

The greatest danger was not military attack — “a bolt from the red” — but rather that Beijing might exploit its growing power to “intimidate Taiwan into submission” on China’s terms, he said.

Allow youth freedom of expression

Taipei Times Editorial

Taiwan has come a long way since the Martial Law era. The public would not enjoy the freedom of speech and democracy it does today without the sacrifices made by democracy pioneers such as Freedom Era Weekly editor-in-chief Deng Nan-jung (鄭南榕), who set himself ablaze on April 7, 1988, in defense of freedom of expression.

It is therefore both comforting and encouraging to see young people take a stand, as National Cheng Kung University’s student body did last month when it voted to name an area on campus “Nan-jung Square” (South Banyan Square, 南榕廣場) in honor of Deng, an alumnus of the school, as well as the school’s symbol of a banyan tree.

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