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第五屆台菲學術交流研討會: 數位人文與
文化研究
2012 Fifth Taiwan-Philippines Academic Conference:
Digital Humanities and Cultural Studies
The EDSA Revolution in the Philippines and the Prologue to
the Peaceful Revolution in Taiwan
Samuel Shengfei Hung
National University of Kaohsiung
Abstract
The EDSA Revolution in the Philippines took place in February 22 to 24 1986,
around two years before Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) succeed Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國)
to be the president of Taiwan. Within these two years, Chiang appointed Lee to lead
the political reform, which served as the basis of the Peaceful Revolution in Taiwan.
This paper argues that the EDSA Revolution not only has many similarities with the
Peaceful Revolution in Taiwan, it actually has contributed to speeding of the political
reform in Taiwan. The EDSA revolution shall be regarded as one of the important
factors to Taiwan’s democratization.
Key words: the EDSA Revolution, the Peaceful Revolution, democratization, cold war,
US strategy
Samuel Shengfei Hung
Introduction
The 1980s was an important decade for both the Philippines and Taiwan. Both
countries’ regimes practice the martial law and both had little tolerance to the
descendants. Assassination was a tool to deal with leading figures in both countries.
One of such crimes committed by states connected the fate of Manila and Taipei,
namely the death of Sen. Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, Jr.
After living self-imposed exile for three years in the United States, Aquino risked
his life to take a plane of China Airline, a Taiwanese company indirectly own by its
government. On 21 August 1983, Aquino was assassinated at the air-bridge
connecting the plane of China Airline and the Manila International Airport. His
martyrdom was stimulation to the people of the Philippines and caused severe critics
from the international society, especially the United State. An estimated two million
Filipinos joined his funeral (Schock 73-74). In Februrary1986, Corazon Aquino, the
widow of the slain Ninoy Aquino, was supported to run the presidential against
Ferdinand Marcos, the dictator who reigned over the Philippines since 1965 until then.
After Marcos cheated and claimed to be the winner, millions of the Filipinos gathered
on the highway named as the EDSA bushing back with their bare hands the tanks sent
by Marcos. The people’s power finally led the defection of the military. Marcos
fled soon after the broadcast of his inauguration was disturbed by the military seizing
the television stations (David 7-11). To remember the people’s power demonstrated on
the EDSA highway, this event is named as the EDSA revolution.
In Taiwan, political murders also led to strong reactions and political reforms.
The KMT regime in Taiwan was highly suspected of committing the murder of the
twin seven-year old daughters and old mother of Lin Yi-hsiung (林義雄) in 1980,
the murder of the Dr. Chen Wen-chen (陳文成) in 1981, and the assassination of
Henry Liu (known by his pen name Chiang Nan, 江南) in 1984. One after the
other, these cases led to the resentment of the Taiwanese, and harsh complains from
the United States. Undergoing tremendous pressure from the domestic opposition
and the United States, Chiang Ching-kuo, the then president, finally made some
important announcements to started political reform. The old and sick dictator
appointed Lee Teng-hui, his vice-president to lead a task force and oversee the
processing of political reform. Lee succeeded the presidency after Chiang’s death,
and brought forth dramatic democratization. During Lee’s reign, Taiwan turned out
to be a country with representative democracy. The Taiwanese could finally elect
The EDSA Revolution in the Philippines and the Prologue to the Peaceful Revolution in Taiwan
their representatives in the parliament, their mayors, and their presidents. Since there
was no civil war and coup d’état, no bleeding of the rival groups concerning
democratization, Taiwan’s democratization under Lee Teng-hui was often named as
the Peaceful Revolution.
This paper argues that the EDSA Revolution and the Peaceful Revolution does
not only have similar background (assassination, resentment of the people, the US’s
pressure), the former actually contributed to Taiwan’s speeding up political reform in
the period between its outbreak and the death of Chiang Chin-kuo.
The US’s strategy of
anti-communist regimes
containment
and
the
dictators
of
The outbreak of the Cold War soon after the World War II led to the United
States friendship with anti-communist regimes around the world. Many of those
anti-communist countries were ruled by dictators. Having fought against the Nazi
Germany and now fighting against the communists, it was embarrassing for the
United States to work hand in hand with dictators. In order to avoid the question of
double standard, the US scholars developed two terms: “authoritarianism” vs.
“totalitarianism”.
While “totalitarianism” referred to the party-state systems of Adolf Hitler’s
Germany and Joseph Stalin’s communist bloc, “authoritarianism” was used to
describe the anti-communist regimes control by military figures or bureaucrats.
Scholars claimed that while both “totalitarian” regimes and “authoritarian” regimes
limited the freedom of the people and disrespected human rights, the “authoritarian”
ones did not intruded the private life of the people as long as they were submissive,
unlike the “totalitarian” regimes which tried to totally change their societies into
utopias in accordance with the ideologies of the rulers.
With such distinction, it seemed to be not too bad for the United States to
cooperate with the “authoritarian” regimes to fight against the communist bloc.
However, if one look into details of the criteria of the “totalitarianism”, he may
discover that some of the so called “authoritarian” regimes were actually “totalitarian”.
Such criteria included a party-state system which ruled the country and the army with
ideology and secret police. The party’s ideology served as the guidance of economics
and everyday life. Press was controlled by the party. White terror was common
practice.
Samuel Shengfei Hung
Taiwan under Chiang regime actually fitted every criterion for “totalitarianism”
mentioned above. Yet it was regarded “authoritarian”, just because it was an
anti-communist regime.
After Ferdinand Marcos declared Martial Law in September 1972 and ratified a
new constitution in 1973 to give himself the absolute power. The media was shut
down, and opponents and dissenters were arrested and tortured by the military
(Gongzaga 111).
Taiwan and the Philippines are both located on the “First Island Chain.”
Hence,
they both were allies of the United States. For a long time, the United States did not
express much concern on these two regimes’ misconducts against their own people.
Such situation changed in 1980s.
The Reagan Regime and the EDSA Revolution
Ronald Reagan had a different attitude toward the “authoritarian” dictators from
the previous US presidents. While his race with the communist bloc finally
contributed to the bankruptcy of the Soviet Union in late 1980s and its final collapse
in 1991, he did not mute when his “authoritarian” allies offended the human rights of
their own people. The EDSA was one of the most important cases reflecting the
change of US policy toward dictators.
The Philippines’ economic performance was poor in the later stage of Marcos’
reign. Ninoy Aquino’s death provoked even deeper resentment of the people against
the Marcos regime. Meanwhile, the United States gave the Marcos regime
tremendous pressure, so that the later one had to hold a “snap” presidential election 16
months ahead of schedule, in order to show its legitimacy by the consent of the ruled
(US Department of State, 1986). Such announcement was made by Marcos on "This
Week with David Brinkley," an American television talk show of the American
Broadcast Company, on November 23rd 1985.
Marcos believed his early reelection would solidify United States support,
silence his critics in the Philippines and the United States, and get rid of the impact of
Benigno Aquino’s death. He was confident with his smoothly running, well-financed
political machine and the divided nature of the opposition promised success.
The EDSA Revolution in the Philippines and the Prologue to the Peaceful Revolution in Taiwan
Yet to his surprise, things turned out to be quiet opposite to what he wished.
Unlike their common practice, the Filipino did not go home after casting their vote in
February 1986. Instead, they stayed at the polling precincts to make sure their
ballots were counted. After eye-witness the massive and palpable cheating, they did
not accept the self-claimed victory of Ferdinand Marcos. Millions of the Filipinos
took part of the demonstration. Instead of giving in, Marcos ordered the army to
crash the demonstration. The international media monitored and broadcasted how
the Filipinos used their prayers and flowers to resist the tanks (David 9).
During the campaign for the “snap” presidential election, American media such
as Newsweek, Time and other publications launched barrage of disinformation
regarding the illicit love affairs of both Marcos and the First Lady, and the public
distrust of the Commission on Election. Such reports were seen as part of the U.S.
scenario (Juan).
CIA’s role in the EDSA revolution was mentioned in some later works. Erick A.
San Juan, a prominent civic leader for example, later talked about how James
Brandon Foley, a political officer and a CIA agent of the U.S. Embassy, revealed to
him a secret operation plan to oust Marcos (Juan). The underground left also
disparage the EDSA events by insisting that the entire thing was a CIA-scripted show
(David 11).
On February 25th, both Corazon Aquino and Ferdinand Marcos took oath to
claim the presidency of the Republic of the Philippines. The ambassadors of the
major foreign countries except the newly arrived Soviet Union one paid their respect
to Corazon instead of Marcos. Soon, Marcos fled.
The EDSA Revolution and the Speeding up of Taiwan’s Political
Reform
Similar to the Marcos regime in the Philippines, the Chiang regime also could
not survive without the support of the United States. Even worse, China never
ceases to “united” Taiwan and would try to reach this goal with force if necessary.
The Chiang regime heavily relied on the protection of the U.S. ever since its
leadership fled to Taiwan.
The Chiang regime was always skeptical about the possibility of being
overthrown by US supported coup d’état. Actually, the US Department of State did
Samuel Shengfei Hung
once have a plan to cast out Chiang Kai-shek and his followers and raised a “puppet
government” in Taiwan before the outbreak of the Korean War. During Chiang
Kai-shek’s presidency, his son Chiang Ching-kuo was in charge of the secret police
and finally got rid of commander-in-chief Sun Li-ren (孫立人) and Taiwan governor
K. C. Wu (吳國禎), both possible candidates of the “puppet government” (US State
Department, 1945-1949). High school boys wearing the armband of the China
Youth Corps, an semi-official organization led by Chiang Ching-kuo personally,
joined the mob to attack the US embassy in 1957. After the staff hided themselves
from the mob, their offices were intruded and secret files were spread in public for
hours (US State Department, 1955-1957). Such conducts were regarded as the
Chiang regime’s fear of the US plot to overthrow them and find someone to replace
them.
Chiang Ching-kuo succeeded his father’s presidency in 1978.
Same as his
father, Chiang Ching-kuo served as the president until he died. Although the
economic growth was fast under Chiang Ching-kuo’s era, a financial crisis evoked by
governmental officials’ corruption led to overwhelmed bankruptcy of medium and
small businesses in 1985. People’s resentment reached to a dangerous point that
something must be changed.
Chiang Hsiao-wu (蔣孝武), Chiang Ching-kuo’s son who was regarded as the
one to succeed the throne, was involved in the murder of Henry Liu, who was a US
citizen and got shot in the territory of the United States by the mafia sent by the
Chiang regime on October 15th, 1984. The US government and congress both gave the
Chiang regime tremendous pressure. Chiang Ching-kuo was forced to announce that
his family should not and would not run for the presidency anymore on Christmas of
1985.
The EDSA revolution of the Philippines in 1986 was a shock to the Chiang
regime. No matter whether the CIA was really involved in the casting out of
Ferdinand Marcos, the Chiang regime took it for serious truth. What happened to
the Marcos regime could happen to the Chiang regime, too. Between the outbreak of
the EDSA revolution and the death of Chiang Ching-kuo, Taiwan’s political reform
sped up. A taskforce for political reform was organized under the leadership of Lee
Teng-hui on April 9th, 1986. Chiang Ching-kuo asked the taskforce to discuss the
abolishment the martial law on June 12th, 1986. Chiang Ching-kuo gave an order to
the political, military and secret police not to do anything against the Democratic
Progressive Party, the first opposite party in Taiwan which was established on
The EDSA Revolution in the Philippines and the Prologue to the Peaceful Revolution in Taiwan
September 28th, 1986. The martial law was abolished on July 15th, 1987.
The
st
restriction on the press was removed on January 1 , 1988, twelve days before Chiang
Ching-kuo’s death.
The speeding up of political reform between the EDSA revolution and the death
of Chiang Ching-kuo later served as the basis of the Peaceful Revolution led by Lee
Teng-hui.
Conclusion
The EDSA revolution gave the dictator in Taiwan a clear message that the US
government under President Ronald Reagan has changed its attitude to dictatorships.
At the last stage of the Cold War, the United States was no longer friendly to the
dictators. The oust of Ferdinand Marcos could happen to any other dictator in US
ally countries.
After Taiwan’s diplomatic relationship with the United States ended in 1978, the
US congress’ friendship with Taiwan has been vital for the survival of this island.
Chiang Ching-kuo could not risk the anger of the United States after his son and
followers got involved in killing US citizens. The EDSA revolution’s outbreak two
years before Chiang Ching-kuo’s death should have help him to make up his mind for
speeding up political reform.
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Samuel Shengfei Hung
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