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Tsai lauds democracy activist Fu
FOUNDING FATHER: Tsai said that during the KMT’s
authoritarian rule, Fu could well have lived a life of power, but instead he
chose a road filled with thistles and thorns
By Rich Chang / Staff Reporter, with Staff Writer
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
presidential hopeful Tsai Ing-wen, center, holds up a bunch of jasmine flowers
during a ceremony yesterday at the Taipei Grand Hotel, the building where the
DPP was founded, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the death of Fu Cheng,
one of the founding members of the party.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
presidential candidate and party chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) lauded late
democratic activist Fu Cheng’s (傅正) life-long contribution to Taiwan at a
commemorative event held yesterday to mark the 20th anniversary of his death.
The commemoration took place at Taipei’s Grand Hotel — the site where he and
other democracy activists founded the DPP in 1986.
“On Sept. 28, 1986, the DPP was formed at the Grand Hotel. Today, at the same
place, we hold a memorial ceremony for one of the party’s funding fathers,
democracy activist Fu Cheng,” Tsai said in her speech.
Fu, born in 1927 in China’s Jiangsu Province, was a stalwart Chinese Nationalist
Party (KMT) member who in the 1940s worked as an instructor for KMT political
thought officers.
As a close associate of Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), the son of dictator Chiang
Kai-shek (蔣介石), Fu followed the Chiangs to Taiwan and continued to work in the
KMT’s political education unit.
However, Fu soon realized the government did not intend to implement democracy
at all.
In the 1960s, Fu expressed his discontent with the government in Free China
(自由中國), a publication that advocated liberalism and was sharply critical of the
KMT. He was thrown in jail for founding the China Democracy Party that advocated
reform with then-democracy activist Lei Chen (雷震). Fu spent more than six years
in prison.
In her speech, Tsai praised Fu for devoting himself to the push for democracy
after his release from prison.
In 1986, Fu thought the dangwai (黨外, outside the party) movement was not enough
and believed founding an opposition party was necessary.
Fu belonged to the “Committee of 10,” the 10 founders of the DPP that included
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) and former premiers Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and Yu Shyi-kun
.
Tsai said that during the KMT’s authoritarian rule, Fu could very well have
lived a glamorous life of power, but instead he chose the road filled with
thistles and thorns by standing side-by-side with the people in defense of
justice and truth, and in the pursuit of democracy and human rights.
“Fearless in the face of the authoritarian regime, Fu transcended ethnic and
partisan divides with democratic values and let his successors understand that
one should cherish the hard-fought fruit of democracy,” Tsai said, suggesting
that work remains undone and that the party needs to stay united in its bid to
win the presidential election next year.
Former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) did not join the ceremony yesterday,
triggering speculation that Su was avoiding meeting with Tsai after his defeat
in the DPP presidential primary.
When asked for comment on his relations with Tsai at a separate setting
yesterday, Su said they have not contacted each other since Tsai won the
presidential primary. Tsai yesterday said she would soon pay visits to and seek
advice from senior DPP members, including Su.
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