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DPP pans school
textbook singing the KMT’s praises
By Lin Hsiao-yun, Hsieh Chia-chun and Stacy Hsu / Staff
reporters, with staff writer
A high-school civics textbook that touts the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) as
a “mature, democratic political party with integrity and the capability to
govern,” runs counter to reality and aims to brainwash future generations,
opposition lawmakers said.
At a meeting of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee on Thursday,
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Cheng Li-chun (鄭麗君) took out the
textbook published by Chuanhwa Publishing Co (全華圖書) while interpellating
Minister of Education Chiang Wei-ling (蔣偉寧).
A paragraph dedicated to the KMT in the textbook, which is designed for
first-grade high-school students, states: “As the longest-serving ruling party
in the nation, the KMT is a mature, democratic party with integrity and the
capability to govern, and has played a critical role in the well-being of the
country’s 23 million people.”
“The KMT has been embroiled in more than 100 legal cases since President Ma
Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office [in 2008]. Is this textbook trying to ridicule or
praise the party?” Cheng said.
Cheng said the quoted content clearly did not tally with reality, particularly
given the recent spate of corruption cases involving KMT members.
He added that publishing such untruthful statements was tantamount to an attempt
at brainwashing future generations.
“Moreover, the textbook fails to make any mention of the DPP’s eight-year
governance of the country [between 2000 and 2008] when introducing the party to
young pupils, which is also inconsistent with history,” Cheng said.
DPP Legislator Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said that amid the ongoing graft cases
involving former Executive Yuan secretary-general Lin Yi-shih (林益世) and former
Taipei City councilor Lai Su-ju (賴素如) of the KMT, the textbook’s description of
the KMT as a “mature party with integrity” could be the greatest irony promoted
by the national education system.
“The textbook appears to have degenerated into political propaganda and forsaken
every democratic value in this nation,” Lin Chia-lung said, calling on the
ministry to reflect on the matter and make necessary changes.
Chiang said he would refer the matter to the Textbooks Review Committee, which
was the main body charged with screening textbooks, adding that while the
content of school textbooks was subject to public scrutiny, he “did not get the
impression that the statements in question are praising the KMT.”
Yang Kuo-yang (楊國揚), director of the National Academy for Educational Research’s
Development Center for Textbooks, said the textbook was granted a six-year
approval license due to expire in 2015 and that the center would request its
publisher to provide explanations or make necessary corrections should the
review committee find its content inappropriate.
In response to media queries, Chuanhwa Publishing editor Tsai Yi-jung (蔡依蓉) said
a formal inquiry in written form needs to be sent to the company before an
official statement could be made on the matter.
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