President Chen Shui-bian attended the "2005 National Filiality Prize Citation Ceremony" this morning. Besides conferring the prizes and greeting the winners, the president hopes that through the award-winners, the general public will take the lessons and treat their elders in the family with filiality, respect and care.
The content of the president's speech is as follows:
I am very happy to meet with the award winners. I feel honored to be here, especially when this event carried special significance. The selection of the winners of the "Filial Award" is a meaningful activity and the 46 individual winners and the 6 outstanding civic organizations in front of me will serve as models through their exemplary acts to benefit the society.
In addition to congratulating the winners and their families, I hope that their exemplary acts will serve as guidelines for the general public to follow, and by honoring the elders in the family and taking care of them, the family will live in peace and harmony.
Each "Filial Award" winner has a very touching story to tell. Among the 46 winners this year, 14 are just teenagers. Although they are young, they do not complain at all about their living environment being unfavorable to them. Instead, they adopt an attitude of gratitude and recompense their elders with love. The Bible says: "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them." Such as Chu-hsiang and Hsiao-chu who are still attending elementary school, one is from a family with both parents blind, the other has a mother with paralyzed legs and cannot walk. They not only haven't been defeated by the difficulties in their life, but they have become their parents' eyes and support, dealing with every thing that has to be done in the family and trying their best to endure hardships. They enable us to witness the strength and vitality of Taiwan's next generation.
My father was a tenant farmer. He worked all his life very hard because he wanted his next generation to be brilliant. However, at the time when I just started to have the capability to feedback, he unfortunately died of liver cancer. Every time when I think of my father's selfless devotion to the family, I feel guilty that I had never cared enough for my father and my beloved family. This is why I hope that through the citation of the "Filial Award," the regret of being too late to recompense the parents could be avoided.
Some of the award winners here are themselves handicapped; some others come from poor families. Others are even over 70 years old. But they never resign to their fate and instead do their best to take care of their grandparents, parents, uncles, aunts or their parents-in-law. They have quietly devoted themselves to the care of their elders for many years, or have even sacrificed their youth, career or marriage, but they do it without complaint or regret.
Although they are different in age and educational level, every award winner gains the same respect from us. I believe that those who bring sunshine to illuminate others' life are themselves bathed under sunshine. Because the award winners have love in their heart, thus have the unlimited force to take care of their family members, bravely overcome the adversity and challenges to illuminate our society. I hope that these stories on filial piety could be known and told to every corner of Taiwan so that our society would be filled with warmth and care.
An old saying goes: "filial piety is the first of all virtues." In an industrialized society, traditional family structure and value have undergone huge changes. But I believe that the basic spirit of filial piety will not change. I expect each award winner's touching story to be told to the society, so that the people would cherish life and respect the elderly. I would also like to express my gratitude to the Taiwan Provincial Government to have organized this ceremony, which is not only an encouragement and affirmation to the children's filial acts towards their parents, but also an opportunity to spread the light and warmth of filial piety to every corner of the society.
Finally, I would like to express my deepest respect to each of you, and wish you good health and success.