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Raising media and
education awareness
By Chou Chih-hung ©P§Ó§»
At the beginning of this month, members of the public concerned about the
monopolization of the media in Taiwan took to the streets of Taipei. More
recently, people in Hong Kong staged street demonstrations and school strikes
over the government¡¦s planned introduction of ¡§national education¡¨ patriotism
courses. These protests occurred in two different geographical locations, over
what on the surface appear to be different issues. However, what unites them are
the concerns of the respective populations that the two events were the result
of the handiwork of political forces operating in the background, with the
intention of ¡§brainwashing¡¨ or manipulating citizens.
In the past, within non-democratic societies, both the media and education
system have been employed by the authorities as effective political tools to
consolidate power and to suppress any form of democratic thought that people
might have. They were also used as the means through which to ¡§enlighten¡¨ their
supporters and receptive citizens. The media, perceived as a source of
information, was under the control of the authorities and was used by the
powers-that-be to inform the public of what was deemed necessary or desirable
for them to know.
School education, and in particular compulsory education, was used to inculcate
ideas into people from an early age, in order to create an obedient citizenry
that would constitute the next generation, sowing the seeds for consolidated
rule in the long term.
Education provided in Japanese schools in Taiwan during World War II, by the
government in Nazi Germany and by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) during the
Martial Law era in Taiwan, are classic examples of national education founded
upon the specific political objective of manipulating the populace to further
the political needs of the authorities.
After Taiwan became democratic, national education was all but divested of such
negative connotations, for a time at least, but politics continues to taint what
is taught in our schools, even as far up as higher education.
This is, at least in part, the reason for the ongoing dispute over the high
school curriculum in Taiwan. We should bear this in mind when we empathize with
the protests in Hong Kong against the introduction of patriotism classes, just
as we should remind the protesters there to be mindful of the prodigious
capacity of the media to brainwash them, too.
The Taipei Society supports the people in Hong Kong who are demanding a fully
democratic system and who are concerned over attempts by the authorities to
politicize the education taught to their children. We also call on the Taiwanese
to be more aware of the same thing happening in our own education system, and
what is taught within it, particularly with the proposed changes to the national
curriculum and the content of the textbooks used, and of the manipulation by
political forces that lie behind these changes. Of course, we also call on the
Taiwanese to continue monitoring the problem in this country of the
monopolization of the media by media moguls. We must remain vigilant at all
times to these evils.
Chou Chih-hung is president of the Taipei Society.
Translated by Paul Cooper
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