文/陳正翰
前副總統呂秀蓮今 (26) 天在首爾獲頒「世界和平女性獎」，當天並以英文發表專題演說，題目為「讓女性拯救地球、儲蓄未來」，演講全文如下：
The WFWP 20th Anniversary
The Global Women’s Peace Network Assembly
“Let Women Save the Earth, Save the Future”
H.E. Lu Hsiu-lien Annette
Former Vice-President of Taiwan
Seoul, Korea
March 26, 2012
Dr.Hak Ja Han Moon, Dr. Sun Myung Moon, President Lan Young Moon of the WFWP International, distinguished guest, ladies and gentleman:
It’s quite a pleasure to attend today’s Global Women’s Peace Network Assembly for the 20th Anniversary of the Women’s Federation for World Peace. Under the excellent leadership of President Lan Young Moon (文蘭英) ,the Federation has made remarkable contribution to world peace through women’s network. Thank you for your great efforts. Thank you also for your kindness to grant me the prestigious Women World Peace Award, as a compliment of my life time struggle.
Peace has always been a dream for everyone, men and women as well. But looking over the entire human civilization, 99.9％ of all wars were initiated by men, yet 100％ of victims were women and their beloved husbands and children. Why so? Why won’t men allow us women to decide whether there is a need for war? Why don’t we women seek positions of power to maintain peace and prevent war from happening?
We have all seen movies and television series in which men are depicted as heroes, fighting each other for whatsoever reason, often with brutality, bloodshed and large-scale casualties. Are they truly brave? Courage without wisdom and mercy is stupid and cowardly. Why we women always silent about what we feel and believe, good or bad, right or wrong?
Why through the millennia of human history are there only “his stories”and not “her stories”?
We should not forget that we women are the descendents of Eve and that we constitute half of the world population. Without women there wouldn’t be babies.
Indeed, while women do constitute half the world’s population, and women should lift up half the sky, the point is, are we ready to lift it up? Are we ready to share half the responsibility?
Women did not reach to the pinnacle position until the 1950’s when Mongolia elected its first female president. In 1990’s, there were 30 women elected to become president. Ever since then, countries including Liberia, Chile, Finland, Costa Rica, Panama, Nigeria, Argentina, Indonesia, Philippines, Brazil and Chile have elected women presidents. And in England, India, Germany, New Zealand and Australia, female prime ministers also have played important roles to rule their own nations.
Reflecting over the history of Northeast Asia, coincidentally China, Korea and Japan, each had a woman with her unique status to play an unique and critical role for the development of her own country. China’s Empress Dowager Cixi (慈禧太后), Korea’s Queen Myeongseong (明成皇后) and Japan’s Atsuhime (篤姬) were the last queens of a dynasty. While Chinese Empress Dowager Cixi (慈禧太后) was a conservative, Japan’s Atsuhime (篤姬) appeared to be considerably liberated. However, the story of Korea’s Queen Myeongseong (明成皇后) deserves a careful study based on Feminism in order to have a fair and appropriate elaboration on her leadership for Korea. It was obvious that Dowager Cixi‘s (慈禧太后) conservatism resulted in the lagging of China for modernization. By contrast, Atsuhime’s(篤姬) liberalism was helpful for Japan’s emancipation. However, the destiny of Korean Queen reflects the struggle of woman for herself and her mother land.
In modern Asia, a number of countries including India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand have had female head of state. And in Taiwan, I’m the first woman vice-president and the only vice-president reelected. Up till today, with the exception of me, those Asian women national leaders all came from powerful political families, either their father or their husband or brother was prestigious political figures. Some of them in fact were political widows, and such widow politics has been an unique phenomenon in Asia. Their participation into politics shall not be considered a model for feminist politician.
A Feminist politician shall stand up on her own, not on her family; shall fight for the people, not her family or herself. Allow me to take this opportunity to briefly share with you what struggles I have made throughout my life and what dreams have or have not been accomplished.
Due to the historical background of Chinese immigration, followed by five decades of colonial rule by Japan, and then another forty years of the Chinese Nationalist regime’s martial law, Taiwan’s women traditionally suffered from the double burden of Chinese Confucianism and Japanese male chauvinism.Under such culture, women were taught nothing else but to serve and to please men, making women the second sex.
When I returned to Taiwan from studying in the United States in 1971, I found that the whole society was debating how to prevent young women from attending universities. It was argued that valuable social resources were being wasted on women, since they were expected to abandon their careers and stay at home to take care of household after getting married.
It was under such an environment that I began to advocate feminism, criticizing male chauvinism on the one hand and proposing new feminist doctrines on the other. I wrote articles, made speeches, organized women and conducted a variety of activities.
At the time I initiated the feminist movement, most women in Taiwan did not receive high education. Very few married women worked outside their house hold. And in Congress, only 7％ were women.
But today, women receive as much education as men do. Women occupy 44％ of technical positions, and one-third of companies are owned by women.Already women are presidents, general managers and CEOs of many well-known companies. They take the lead in many advanced fields. Politically, women occupy 32％ in the Congress and 35％ in local councils. Many cabinet positions are taken by women. And in the most recent presidential election my party had nominated the Party Chair Dr. Tsai Ing-wen to run as the first female president candidate. To conclude, on the basis of the United Nations’ Gender Empowerment Measurement, Taiwan ranks 19th in the world and 2nd in Asia. If Taiwan’s achievements in terms of empowering women and improving women’s lives are remarkable, it’s because women’s liberation went hand in hand with the political liberation of our nation from autocracy to democracy.
Throughout the 38-year period of martial law in Taiwan, not only were democracy suspended and civil society restricted, but serious human rights abuses frequently occurred. For six years I advocated feminism on the one hand and promoted in the opposition movement on the other, until being jailed on charge of sedition.
On December 10th, 1979, when a large number of people took to the streets to celebrate the upcoming International Human Rights Day at an event organized by the opposition, police and soldiers were ordered to release tear gas into the crowd, and gangsters were organized to attack the police in an attempt to implicate opposition leaders in the casualties caused.
I witnessed so much chaos that I was outraged and stood on top of a truck and delivered a most provocative and touching speech for 20 minutes. The tens of thousands of people in the audience were moved, some were even moved to tears. Three days later, I was the first one arrested followed by 151 others. Eight of us leaders were given court martial and sentenced to 12 years in prison. Our loss was the nation’s gain, however, as this was a significant watershed for Taiwan’s democracy. At the next election held while we were still behind bars, many wives of imprisoned activists were elected into congress, inspiring the whole nation to a desire for democracy.
No one would have expected that 20 years later, one of the defense lawyers from the Kaohsiung trial, Chen Shui-bian, would invite one of the eight “seditious elements,”which is me, to be his running mate, and together we would overturn 50 years of authoritarian one-party rule to become the first opposition president and vice president.
But why was I chosen to be the vice president candidate? It was through the achievements I accomplished in governing my home county that I became the best candidate. In 1997, the magistrate of my home county and eight other local politicians were brutally massacred. My party nominated me to run as his replacement. With the county horrified, with mafia and local factions holding the public administration hostage, one can imagine how tough and dangerous the job would be. Nevertheless, I accepted the challenge, and I was overwhelmingly elected to run the county. In three years, I wiped off the syndicated gangs organized by local politicians, added 35 new schools, built the most advanced incinerator to solve garbage crisis, and I also initiated beautiful construction and development plans for my county.
Our victory in 2000 represented Taiwan’s victory of democracy over one of the world’s notorious autocracies.More importantly, with my election as the first female vice president, Taiwan entered a new era of bi-gender politics. Four years later, that continued as I became the first vice president ever re-elected.
It certainly was a culture shock for Taiwan society. The people had only seen the first lady standing next to the president, so some people joked that I should behave like the president’s “political wife.” So whenever I said something political or sensitive, the media and general public felt uncomfortable and tried to silence me, to render me powerless. This situation made the first two years of my vice presidency incredibly miserable.
Despite the attempts by my fellow countrymen to belittle or weaken me, I persisted in doing what I thought to be right, and persisted in saying what I believed to be necessary. Gradually, the whole nation learned to accept a woman as vice head of state, and gradually, people learned to like me as a politician who was honest and sincere, outspoken but approachable.
Eventually I was reelected, making me the only 2 terms-vice-president in my country. My struggle paved the path for Dr. Tsai Ing-wen to run as the first female presidential candidate. Although she failed, she never has endured from any gender discrimination. Taiwan’s society has become liberated after 40 years Feminist movement.
Throughout human history, problems after problems threaten the survival of the universe and living beings, no matter ecological or economic, political or social. In recent years the global economy has been hit by financial tsunamis. Worse than that, the frequent occurrences of natural disasters and catastrophes, including earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, droughts, typhoons, tornadoes, landslides and pervasive eruption of volcanoes are the most crucial crises on earth. Scientists believe that these natural disasters are caused by the damage in Earth ozone layer, desertification, climate change, change in the geomagnetic field and more over solar storms. Asia and the Pacific is the global area most prone to natural disasters. Over the past two years, climate-related disasters have displaced more than 42 million people in Asia.
According to the scientists, carbon dioxide is not the only factor contributing to global warming. A more serious but often underestimated factor that led to the accelerating global warming phenomenon is methane gas. Methane is a kind of greenhouse gas which global warming potential is 72 times higher than carbon dioxide. Methane occupies 51% of total greenhouse gas on earth, of which livestock’s wastes occupy one third. Because of the fast-increasing quantity of methane on earth, it will eventually lead to drastic change in our environment that will cause 1 billion people to become short on water and make 20 million climate refugees.
It takes one third of the land on earth to raise cattle and livestock. It also consumes and pollutes water and soil. Without breeding livestock, rain forests can be preserved and land can be better utilized to grow food for mankind. Then 1 billion people can be free from starvation and drought and most importantly, the global warming crisis can effectively be stopped from accelerating!
It is therefore rational and absolutely necessary to urge people to stop eating meat, at least to eat as little meat as possible. The more meat people eat, the more livestock will be bred. To stop eating meat means to stop wasting land and water and food, and of course, to rescue our mother earth.
As a matter of fact, dietetics teach us that vegetarian food is no less safe, healthy and nutritious. Religious belief also preaches us that no one is entitled to deprive other’s life, including animals, which shall be treated as friends rather than as enemies. And human beings do not kill their friends!
Who cooks meals? Some men do, but nearly all women do the cooking. If women decide not to cook meat, then men will stop eating meat and less livestock will be bred and our mother earth will be recovered, because less meat, less heat.
We women are the best housekeepers for the house, and also for the earth. It is time for us women, as the nurturers of life and as half of the population on earth, to launch a green renovation for green civilization! The concept of green civilization stresses the following four interests of balance:
1. The value of life.
2. The standard of livelihood.
3. The quality of environment.
4. The benefit of industrial investment.
There is no justification to pursue industrial benefit at the high price of people’s lives or living standard or the environment. Without life, nothing is left; and without earth, there can exist no life. I call this philosophy: The Co-prosperity of 4 Balanced Interests.
For years, I’ve been advocating this Philosophy of Co-prosperity. Shortly, after the earthquake and nuclear catastrophe on Fukushima, Japan in March 11 last year. I decided to devote myself to launch the campaign: “Save the Earth, Care for Taiwan”, instead of running for the presidency. Thus, the Green 21 Taiwan Alliance was founded with the goal to “Save the earth, save our future.”
Taiwan is a mountainous island, 70 percent covered by mountains, and located in zones where typhoons and earthquakes frequently occur. In the past half a century, in our pursuit for development, tourism, and good living, we have over-built and over-developed, and landslides and mudslides will be more frequent and extreme, natural and human-caused disasters more prevalent.
Moreover, we have three aging nuclear power plants plus the fourth one under construction. Taiwan is so tiny an island yet is the second most densely populated population on earth. “Nuclear-Free Homeland” is the only choice for her sustainable development. A nuclear-free homeland requires a set of energy saving and carbon reduction strategies, and greater efforts to increase the proportion of wind, water and solar-generated energy sources.
To face the unprecedented, multiple challenges coming our way, we women have to learn and apply the wisdom of “soft power”. Just like Korea, Taiwan has learned to project soft power, namely, democracy, human rights, love, peace and technological innovation, and these values help and facilitate Taiwan’s transformation from a small, poor country under an authoritarian regime into a highly developed country with most advanced high-technology and democracy through a peaceful process.
Soft power is constructive and generous in nature. It attracts and draws others into partnership and cooperative relations. The struggle for hard power is often a zero-or even negative-sum game (as in the case of wars), while the developmental and sharing nature of soft power is always a positive-sum game. Hard power should no longer be the sole measurement of a country’s success, and soft power will play more important role in the future of our world. Indeed, soft power is the foundation for world peace and substantial development.
Can soft power help strengthen women? Of course, women are the best players of soft power. But to be empowered to play, women must first enrich themselves with their own soft power of mercy, beauty, wisdom and courage.
To show mercy is to embrace the unfortunate and to give hope for the hopeless. Women’s beauty is not just physical but spiritual and intellectual. Women shall develop themselves for wisdom rather than sexual appearance. And courage is to speak up for what is right and to fight against what is wrong. It is with these four virtues that women will break away from being the passive victims of history and will become active writers for human story. With these four virtues, we women can become good and strenghful peace makers for the world！
With these four virtues, we have to build up confidence in whatever we think and whatever we do, instead of merely following others. And once we have made up our minds, we must go ahead and do it and enjoy. In other words, we should find self contentment, we should feel that we are the master of ourselves!
We do not rely on others, we rely on ourselves. We make ourselves the masters and leading actors of our own destinies.
Dear sisters, we are descendants of Eve, we should be proud of her wisdom and courage to give birth to lives in Eden. Our mother earth Eden is in danger now, can we ignore the crisis? Can we run away from it? To care for the Earth as well as to keep peace for the world is definitely the first priority of women leaders in this green 21st century.
Dear sisters of World Federation of Women, let’s begin to launch a green renovation. Let’s create a green civilization for peace and for the earth. Let’s save the Earth in order to save the future.
Thank you.
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