This morning, after 20 hours of travelling, I came back from a week-long visit to Taiwan, as I was invited by our liberal friends from the Democratic Progressive Party Youth section (DPP-Y). Together with Roger from LYMEC, Jan-Argy from YLDA and three of our MO representatives, Adrian from JFS, Ivo from JD and Niels from JOVD, I toured the two major cities of Taiwan: Taipei and Khaosiung.
IFLRY has a short but intense relationship with DPP-Y: it was not until November 2004 that they became IFLRY observer member, but since then DPP-Y has been taking part in almost all of our statutory events and three IFLRY delegations have been invited to Taiwan. This time the purpose of the trip was primarily to attend several national events that were organized to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the DPP, to get acquainted with the newly established official youth organization of DPP (TYDU) and to get engaged in Taiwanese politics. The last point involves visits to the HQs of the mayoral election campaigns in Taipei and Khaosiung, taking part in a national DPP rally and discussing the notorious relationship between China and Taiwan with various (DPP) experts.
As you'll understand, it will take too much time to get into too much detail in describing the whole of last week. However, the huge rally that was organized last saturday was definitely something that will stick for a long time with me. The rally mobilized an estimated 250.000 people who expressed their support for the heavily embattled party, as it tries to find a way out of a big scandal that has tarnished president's Chen reputation and thereby that of the DPP. With the nationalist and former authoritarian Kuomintang (KMT) party as the biggest party in opposition, the prospect of a severely weakened DPP seems not to be a positive one for the country.
To show our support for the party that brought democracy to Taiwan, we entered the rally under the warm and loud cheers of co-ralliers and the crowd. In fact, the sensation we seemed to arouse around us was quite overwhelming: we shook hands, waved with flags and banners, chanted the easily memorizable 'Taiwan Tei-Du' (something like: Free Taiwan), gave interviews to media and posed for pictures. It was very apparent: these people craved international attention, and even though we were 'just' a bunch of youngsters, our presence at their rally seemed to boost their spirits.
Some people have argued that the discussion on Taiwan's sovereignty is something solely for the Taiwanese themselves, and that it's not for the international community to judge their considerations. I personally do not entirely agree with this. Taiwan is currently a relatively free, democratic and economically advanced country, whereas China is far from free or democratic, and also lacks the basic infrastructure to service its hundreds of millions of rural poor. A unification with the China of this moment, will almost certainly result in a detoriation of Taiwans domestic situation, and should therefore be opposed. As long as China doesn't fundamentally change its position on human rights and democracy, Taiwan should be seen as a shining beacon that proves the compatibility of Asian values with democracy.
Some pictures of the rally and of the other amazing stuff we've done and visited, should be posted online soon!