Leo Tolstoy didn’t think kindly of historians.“History,” he quipped, “is nothing but a collection of fables and useless trifles cluttered up with a mass of unnecessary figures and proper names.”
President Chen Shui-bian certainly subscribes to Tolstoy’s historiography, albeit we doubt he has ever read any work of the great Russian writer.Otherwise, he wouldn’t have pushed a campaign to condemn President Chiang Kai-shek in the name of transitional justice with great gusto.
Chen is not well read, either.That’s why he was deeply impressed when he heard for the first time ever an American professor propose Taiwan declare October 25 as independence day to mark the thirty-sixth anniversary of its ouster from the United Nations.Bruce Hershchensohn, professor of public policy at Pepperdine University at Pepperdine Plaza, Los Angeles, California, said the proclamation of Taiwan Independence Day would be just as historic as the designation of July 4 as Independence Day of the United States.He also recommended Taiwan stop its bid to enter the United Nations to avoid gathering in the same hall with other “infamous governments.”
The president, who wants to get our country to rejoin that world organization under the name of Taiwan in September, didn’t say if he will consider favorably Professor Herschensohn’s latter suggestion.He is more than interested in the former, however.He ordered a cabinet discussion on the proclamation of Taiwan Independence Day.The timing is perfect.Taiwan’s bid will have been long rejected by the United Nations, while the president has only a little more than five months to go before he steps down on May 20 next year.
We wish President Chen would have been our reader.We published in this column and elsewhere – quite a few times – our recommendation that October 25 be celebrated as National Day.One reason we cited is that the celebrated Encyclopedia Britannica already dates Taiwan becoming a new independent nation on that day in 1945.On that day, Chen Yi, administrator-general of Taiwan, accepted the instruments of surrender from General Rikichi Ando, Japanese governor-general of Taiwan, at the old City Hall in Taipei to complete the Republic of China’s formal takeover of the island province after 50 years of Japanese rule.
October 25 used to be marked as a national holiday known as Taiwan Retrocession Day.Should he accept our proposal, Chen wouldn’t have to worry if his “four no’s” commitment to Uncle Sam would have one “no” less, for it’s going to be National Day rather than Independence Day.Many countries have no Independence Day to mark, though they celebrate their National Day.So President Chen can rest assured he did not renege on his word.In his inaugural addresses in 2000 and 2004, the president promised not to declare independence, not to change the name of the country, not to include the “two-state” doctrine in the Constitution, and not to promote a referendum to change the status quo across the Taiwan Strait.
After all, history is not just a haphazard collection of fables and useless trifles filled with unwanted figures and names.
（本文刊載於96.05.28 China Post第4版，本文代表作者個人意見）