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Shih slammed at service for five
executed activists
By Loa Iok-sin / Staff reporter
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng,
left, Control Yuan President Wang Chien-shien, center, and Examination Yuan
President John Kuan pay their respects during a ceremony in the legislature
yesterday to five political prisoners executed for their role in an attempted
armed uprising in 1970.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Calling former Democratic Progressive
Party (DPP) chairman Shih Ming-te (施明德) a liar while shouting slogans for Taiwan
independence, activists protested after a memorial service held at the
Legislative Yuan yesterday for five political prisoners executed for their role
in an attempted armed uprising in 1970 .
With black-and-white portraits of Cheng Chin-ho (鄭金河), Chen Liang (陳良), Chiang
Piang-hsing (江炳興), Chan Tien-tseng (詹天增) and Hsieh Tung-jung (謝東榮) on the stage,
political heavyweights across party lines, including former president Lee
Teng-hui (李登輝), Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), Examination Yuan
President John Kuan (關中), DPP chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and Greater
Kaohsiung City Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) gathered in the auditorium of the Legislative
Yuan to commemorate the five who were executed after the failed uprising.
“I am sorry that it took 43 years to get you here, the highest representation of
the people,” said a tearful Shih, who was also imprisoned at Taiyuan Prison
(泰源監獄) in Taitung County at the time. “You have paved the avenue of freedom for
Taiwan with your blood. Generation after generation of Taiwanese will always
defend that hard-earned freedom.”
“Rest in peace, my brothers,” he added.
However, after the ceremony was over, some independence activists loudly
questioned Shih’s role in the uprising.
“Shih Ming-te, you are a liar!” a protester, Chao Cheng-chi (趙成吉), shouted. “You
lived on because you wrote a letter to beg for forgiveness from Chiang Kai-shek
(蔣介石). The five martyrs were executed because they didn’t.”
Chao also said that several of Shih’s jail mates at the time have pointed out
that the uprising failed because Shih had tipped off authorities, and thus he
had no right to be at the memorial service.
“Shih is shameless,” Chao said.
In May 1970, a group of pro-independence political prisoners and some security
personnel at Taiyuan Prison, as well as some local Aboriginal youths, planned an
armed uprising to overthrow the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime with the
ultimate goal of establishing an independent Taiwan.
However, the plot was discovered by authorities, and was quickly put down, with
more than 20 people — including the five political prisoners and some members of
the security forces — being executed on May 30, 1970.
Wang praised the political prisoners’ contribution to Taiwan’s struggle for
freedom and democracy.
“[The five] were upset by repression, and wanted Taiwanese to be their own
masters, and thus planned armed resistance. They failed and were executed at a
young age,” Wang said. “Taiwan’s transformation from authoritarianism to
democracy was not a natural evolution. It was enabled by the sacrifice of the
people who came before us.”
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