Taipei, Sept. 3 (CNA) Democracy is a truth that will not be suppressed by force, President Chen Shui-bian said Wednesday in a ceremony marking the publication of the memoir of late democracy activist Lei Chen.
The political dissent-turned president said Lei's dream of forming a political party to compete against the Kuomintang (KMT) during the KMT's iron-fisted rule came true in 1986 when the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was founded, although it was 26 years after Lei was accused of treason and put behind bars.
Chen lauded Lei's courage to challenge authoritarianism and his advocacy of democracy in his bimonthly "Free China," which was closed down by the KMT after Lei was arrested in 1960, saying Lei glorified the country's history by spreading the concept of democracy.
He said the seeds of democracy sowed by Lei eventually bore fruit in 2000 when the DPP defeated the KMT in the presidential election and prompted the country's first transfer of power between different political parties.
Chen, who reinstated Lei's reputation posthumously and ordered a search for Lei's prison diary, claimed he is the first president to confirm the late political dissent's contributions to the country and give him his due place in history.
The publishing of Lei's memoir about his campaign to form a Chinese democratic party before he was arrested proves that truth might be hidden or distorted by force temporarily, but will be revealed eventually, the president said.