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The Liberty Times
Editorial: Textbook tactics to re-write history
Nowhere, other than Taiwan, would another nation be able to interfere with ¡X or
be allowed to interfere with ¡X the contents of school materials that address the
debate over national identity and history. Despite that, on June 13, the debate
and controversy over Taiwanese history as portrayed in Taiwan¡¦s senior-high
school history books was discussed at a news conference held by China¡¦s Taiwan
Affairs Office (TAO) with the office spokesperson making the absurd demand that
President Ma Ying-jeou¡¦s (°¨^¤E) administration put its house in order, without
taking the care as to whether or not it gave people the impression that the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) are
cooperating with each other.
Chinese officials clearly have already begun to treat Ma as another Chinese
official. If the Taiwanese government does not protest against this rudeness and
transgression, then the Taiwanese must launch an uncompromising protest against
the government¡¦s self-denigration.
Legislators claim that the Department of Secondary Education at the Ministry of
Education recently held several meetings with the lesson outline examination
committee, as well as publishers, concerning the compilation of history
textbooks for senior-high schools. The main topic of the meetings was to decide
whether certain phrases should be uniformly changed in response to ¡§a suggestion
from a member of the public.¡¨ Some of the suggestions are that every reference
to the People¡¦s Republic of China (PRC) or ¡§the mainland area¡¨ should be
abbreviated as ¡§the Chinese Communist regime,¡¨ ¡§the Chinese mainland¡¨ or ¡§the
mainland.¡¨ Other suggestions included: avoiding the use of ¡§Taiwan¡¨ when dealing
with domestic politics and international relations in place of references to the
¡§Republic of China.¡¨ Any references to the view that Taiwan¡¦s position remains
undetermined should also be avoided. When mentioning the diverse development of
Taiwanese culture, the ¡§central position of Chinese culture¡¨ should be stressed,
and when discussing Taiwan¡¦s immigrant society, ¡§the fact that Chinese people
and Chinese culture make up the bulk [of society]¡¨ following the massive
immigration of Han Chinese should also be stressed.
Education is vital and there are many major issues in the current education
system that are in need of reform and renewal. When the education ministry
ignores these issues and instead uses a minority suggestion as an excuse to
challenge the political sensibilities of society at large, this will create
divisions. This is also the reason why the initiative has drawn strong criticism
in the legislature.
Unexpectedly, the TAO has chimed in from across the Taiwan Strait saying that
Taiwan¡¦s teaching materials have had a pro-independence slant and that Taiwan
from now on should return to the straight and narrow. By showing its cards, the
TAO has reinforced the feeling that Ma has been intending to revise the nation¡¦s
schools¡¦ teaching materials ever since he took office in 2008.
The ministry has explained its position by saying that teaching materials must
once again begin to reflect the Constitution, but in our opinion, this argument
does nothing to alleviate confrontation and conflict. Any ideological positions
must be realistic and the purpose of knowledge is to seek out the truth. We
would never teach our children to lie or to think that what is not theirs simply
becomes theirs by claiming it. This is also the reason why teaching materials
must reflect the truth.
What is the historic truth? On Oct. 25, 1971, at the 26th session of the UN
assembly, the People¡¦s Republic of China (PRC), founded on Oct. 1, 1949, was
given the legal right to represent China at the UN in a landslide vote. The PRC
is universally recognized as ¡§China.¡¨ How can we continue to maintain the
isolated view that it is not?
During the recent presidential campaign, Ma said that even if he were burnt to
ashes he would remain Taiwanese and on the international stage he has said that
he is president of Taiwan. Now, after his re-election, upon what is he basing
his statements that teaching materials should avoid mentioning Taiwan?
Whether one agrees or disagrees with the view that Taiwan¡¦s position remains
undetermined, we cannot ignore the historic fact that Japan and 47 other
countries signed the Treaty of Peace with Japan, also known as the San Francisco
Peace Treaty, on Sept. 8, 1951. Regardless of whether one supports this view, it
is a fact, just as we cannot change the fact that the regime of dictator Chiang
Kai-shek (½±¤¶¥Û) occupied Taiwan militarily after having been gifted it from Japan
as the Allies¡¦ representative in 1945. Why can we not let our children learn
these facts of history?
As for the laughable claim about the ¡§central position of Chinese culture¡¨ we
only have to look at the US and Canada, two immigrant societies, to see if the
teaching materials in their schools stress ¡§the central position of English
culture¡¨ and if they call themselves ¡§English.¡¨
The biggest impact on Taiwanese students studying abroad during the Martial Law
era occurred when they went to libraries overseas and discovered information
which unearthed the Chiang regime¡¦s lies. Today, under Ma¡¦s rule, a single
suggestion from the public makes the education ministry want to turn history
textbooks into incomplete materials to serve a political end, and in doing so,
they are cheered on by junior Chinese officials.
This is an absurd step backwards and it makes one wonder if the government¡¦s
next step will be to rewrite history completely in an attempt to eradicate
Taiwanese history and the Taiwanese identity.
We all have a duty to keep our eyes on the government and to do anything we can
to prevent that from happening.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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