Taiwan Tati Cultural and Educational Foundation

The fight for freedom and democracy is not over

Ku Chung-hwa 顧忠華

After the Tunisians launched the “Jasmine Revolution,” Egypt became the second domino that collapsed. The moment protesters at Cairo’s Tahrir Square heard that Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak had tendered his resignation, they cheered excitedly: “Egypt is free!”

This revolution born out of street protests reaches beyond ethnicity, region, culture and religion, making it clear that that the pursuit of freedom and the will to oppose dictatorship are not exclusive to Western countries. They are truly universal values shared by all human beings.

High Court to rule on KMT’s role in 228 Incident

Taipei Times

The question of the degree to which the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) should shoulder responsibility for the 228 Incident is to be ruled on in the Taiwan High Court on March 9.

The Taipei District Court has already rejected a case brought by the families of 108 victims, ruling that the massacre was ordered by the government of the day and was unrelated to the KMT per se.

Taiwan also needs a Jasmine Revolution

Chang Yeh-shen 張葉森

The “Jasmine Revolution” in Tunisia quickly spread to Algeria, Mauritania, Egypt and Libya, as well as Bahrain, Iran and Yemen. Despite crackdowns by police and military using tanks and fighter jets, democratic awareness among the Arabic peoples has surged as they continue to fight a long-term battle.

The Jasmine Revolution has brought the democratic civic awareness of the Arab world more in line with the international trend toward democracy.

From little acorns can grow mighty oak trees

Wang Dan 王丹

A message appeared on an overseas dissident Web site on Feb. 19, calling on people to gather at 2pm the next day in 13 major Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Nanjing. The message was quickly spread on Twitter and Facebook, and pretty soon everyone was talking about the “Jasmine Revolution.”

Sure enough, on Sunday afternoon, people went to the suggested locations. The Jasmine Revolution had begun in China, albeit on nothing like the scale we have seen in the Middle East in recent weeks.

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