Dear President Clinton:
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spin doctor Parris Chang recently posted a letter in the Liberty Times, a ruling regime mouthpiece: "We... hope Clinton can sincerely examine Taiwan's achievements in democracy, freedom, and human rights... and share his observations with his Democrat colleagues in the US."
Ironically, that is what we, the Committee of 319, earnestly hope you can do.
We hope you can examine Chen Shui-bian's grotesque abuse of the power of his office to ensure himself a second term, and share your observations on how Chen's fraudulent "reelection" in March 2004 makes George W. Bush's 2000 "victory" over Al Gore in Florida, seem like the epitome of fairness.
We hope you can examine the Democratic Progressive Party's appalling violations of democracy, freedom, and human rights, and share your observations on how a once progressive, left of center, reformist opposition party could degenerate with such alarming ease into a racist, right-wing reactionary ruling regime.
When you first became interested in politics, there was not one Democratic Party, there were two Democratic Parties: the racially tolerant left-liberal Democratic Party of John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, and the virulently racist right-wing reactionary Democratic Party of George Wallace and Lester Maddox.
Fortunately for America, Kennedy and Johnson won out.
Unfortunately for Taiwan, the Taiwanese counterparts of George Wallace and Lester Maddox won out.
Today's Democratic Progressive Party is not the party of former political prisoner Shih Ming-teh, "the Nelson Mandela of Taiwan." Shih and fellow DPP elder Hsu Hsing-liang were accused of being "traitors to their race" and unceremoniously drummed out of the DPP years ago for advocating reconciliation with Taiwan's mainlander ethnic minority. Today's DPP is the Taiwanese equivalent of Australia's nativist, racist "One Nation" party.
In June 2004 Vice President Annette Lu blamed Taiwan's Aborigines for overdevelopment, deforestation, soil erosion, and flooding in Taiwan's central mountain range. Aboriginal victims of Tropical Storm Mindulle, Lu declared, deserved no sympathy. They should be relocated en masse to Central and South America, leaving the island in the hands of "Real Taiwanese," i.e., themselves.
Does the term "ethnic cleansing" ring a bell? It should. It describes perfectly what Chen Shui-bian, Annette Lu, and their fellow Taiwan independence fascists have in mind for anyone "not one of us." Is it any wonder that former DPP Public Relations Chief Sisy Chen, whose job it once was to present the DPP's best face to American political leaders, denounced today's DPP as "the Ku Klux Klan of Taiwan?"
Do not be misled by the Democratic Progressive Party's name. After all, Russian right-wing ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky named his party the "Liberal Democratic Party." The only thing Taiwan's "Democratic Progressive Party" shares with America's Democratic Party is the word "Democratic" in its name.
Today's Democratic Progressive Party is neither democratic, nor progressive, and barely qualifies as a political party. As DPP officials will quietly concede in private, their party is little more than a rubber stamp for a fascistic Asian Strongman named Chen Shui-bian.
Today's DPP is not a party that you, a life-long champion of social justice and racial equality, would want to be associated with.
We of the Committee of 319 hope you will share your newfound knowledge with your colleagues in the US. They urgently need to learn the ugly truth about Taiwan's ruling regime. We hope that you, "The Man from Hope," can give the disenfranchized citizens of the Republic of China new hope for the restoration of democracy on Taiwan.
Sincerely,
The Committee of 319
