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Media is wrong to be
silent on democracy
By Hsu Yu-fang 許又方
In a speech marking the 24th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre,
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said that the incident in China on June 4, 1989,
was just as tragic as the 228 Massacre, and that both were “tragedies that
occurred as a result of inappropriate government handling of public protests.”
This is quite the non-statement.
In addition, neither of the country’s two pro-government daily newspapers
mentioned the June 4 incident in as much as a single word.
In Ma’s words, two incidents that were both instances of a government
slaughtering unarmed citizens and following up with a regime of persecution of
innocent people, including arbitrary death sentences, was diluted into a mere
matter of “inappropriate government handling of public protests.”
If this statement was not due to fear of criticizing China, then it was probably
an expression of Ma’s fundamental inability to grasp the essence of democracy
and freedom.
When the Chinese authorities cracked down hard on pro-democracy activists in
Tiananmen Square in 1989, it did not only trample all over basic human rights,
it embodied the overbearing attitudes of an authoritarian government seeking to
enslave its own people.
Future political talks between Taiwan and China may seem inevitable, but if
Taiwan’s top political leader is incapable of understanding and insisting on the
value of democracy and freedom, and is afraid of criticizing the brutality of
authoritarian governments, there is much cause for concern over the direction in
which he will lead Taiwan.
As to the media outlets that keep praising a democracy that allows them to say
whatever they want, without fear of censure, it is a matter for speculation as
to what made them choose this particular moment to stay quiet.
Do they not think that June 4 has anything to do with them, or are they afraid
of offending the Chinese Communist Party? Their reasons may only be guessed at,
but nevertheless, such silence is a great shame.
To live in a democracy and enjoy the protection of freedom of expression while
remaining quiet on such a symbolic day is a violation of the media’s
responsibility to pursue fairness and justice, and is deeply regrettable.
In his prison memoirs, Chinese democracy activist Wang Dan (王丹) expressed his
firm belief in two things.
He said: “What I did was right. I stood on the side of justice, and even if I
have to suffer temporarily, history will prove me right... China will move
toward democracy, and even if the road toward democracy is strewn with setbacks,
the accumulation of these setbacks will only speed up change in China and make
it mature even faster.”
This is true courage and faith. If China is to move toward democracy, it will be
impossible to rely on what Ma calls “the deep self-reflection of a leader.”
What China needs is the encouragement and direct instruction of those with deep
emotional attachments to, and understanding of, democracy.
This is the responsibility of ethnic Chinese around the world.
However, the return of Hong Kong and Macau to China leaves Taiwan to play a
leading role in such a process.
Yet, if Taiwanese leaders and media lack the courage to monitor and criticize
the authoritarian system in China, how can there ever be any hope of it becoming
democratic?
Hsu Yu-fang is an associate professor and chairman of Sinophone literature at
National Dong Hwa University.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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