The Chiang Wei-shui Cultural Foundation’s Statement about Taipei City Mayor Ko Wen-je forming the “Taiwanese People’s Party”
Culture brings people together, politics divides them. This group is a cultural foundation, and we hope that culture can lead politics, which was also Wei-shui’s most basic core value, clearly written in his “Clinical Notes” and his “Taiwan Cultural Association Song.”
An individual has the freedom to form a party, a family has its individual freedom of speech, and the foundation will respect this. The three basic concepts of the People’s Party were “political freedom, economic liberation, social equality.” The foundation also respects all those who identify with Wei-shui’s spirit and ideals, but they must really possess Wei-shui’s selfless spirit of social activism, and be able to truly implement the determination and action of his ideals, and not just use it as a symbol to raise their image.
Mayor Ko is forming a “Taiwanese People’s Party” with the same name as Taiwan’s first political party in 1927, making it easy to cause confusion. The “Taiwanese People’s Party” is a historical asset which belongs to all the people and which holds its lofty place in history, and does not belong to someone in particular. We ask Mayor Ko to reflect further in order to show respect to history and to Wei-shui.
Chiang Wei-shui Cultural Foundation, August 1, 2019
