反右索賠的阻力
◎ 金 鐘

今年是毛澤東發動的反右派運動五十年。本刊特闢專欄發表回憶紀念文章,是因為這個事件,雖已成為歷史,但是餘音未了,並未終結。最近由山東大學幾位學者發起要求為反右道歉賠償的上書,已獲得一千五百反右受害人簽名是為一例。

一九五七年的反右鬥爭,是中共統治大陸後一系列政治運動的一環。向來被大陸史家認為是毛倒行逆施的開始,由反右走向文革。盡管我們並不贊成肯定反右前的運動,但反右確實一個轉折點,毛把清洗的矛頭大規模轉向革命內部。而且使用了極為卑鄙的手段:以「言者無罪」誘人入網,然後誅滅之。不僅毫無法制可言,而且在道德上敗壞殆盡,為文革的無法無天作了鋪墊,為赤裸裸的暴政合理化賣了廣告。毛在反右期間的兩段經典語言:我們比秦始皇厲害一百倍 ...... ;魯迅在今天不閉嘴也要坐牢||這樣混帳的話,至今都沒有得到清算。

反右受害者,官方只承認五十五萬人,據研究顯示超過一百萬人。佔當時政府宣稱的五百萬知識份子的比重十分驚人。從右派包括朱鎔基這樣的總理級人才,可以看到反右對國家精英砍傷之大,知識界家破人亡的故事,迄今仍是文藝創作源源不絕的題材。章詒和的書風行四海,那是最新的證明。最近北京出版總署欲禁她的書,引至軒然大波,也再次說明,反右這筆帳,遠沒有了結。共產黨不僅不還債,而且賴帳,不認帳,不讓人說反右。

原因何在?正如本期邵燕祥文章指出,反右索賠不只是經濟帳,更是政治帳。死不認錯,嫁禍於人,是極權統治的本質。他們權力的正當性來源,不是民意和選票,而是強加於人的自命不凡,絕對正確。因此,毛澤東鬧出接班人叛國的大笑話,氣得半死,兩次休克,也不寫罪己詔。鄧小平文革前兩大惡行反右反修,會見戈爾巴喬夫只說向前看,不提往事;對反右,更不會向臣民認錯,不給平反,只稱改正,仍指右派「殺氣騰騰」不反不行。總之,強詞奪理,霸道天下。反右時敢說,我們有八百萬解放軍,不怕學生娃娃造反;六四時也就敢出動坦克鎮壓 ...... 專政的命脈不可斷,不可出現缺口,否則,新帳老帳一起算,非垮台不可。這是他們的現實,他們的邏輯。是沒有任何政權可以比照的,國民黨為二二八道歉、德國九五年還在為二戰道歉,蘇共在國內國外都有過道歉,甚至日本天皇也作過道歉。惟有這個害死幾千萬生命的黨的字典中沒有「道歉」二字。

至於經濟方面,如果說文革剛結束時,國庫拮挶。那麼今天已是財大氣粗的外匯第一大國,拿出一筆錢,對反右受害者,乃至歷次運動的受害者作出適當的賠償,不僅是必要的,可行的,而且是維護社會正義、和諧安定的最大工程,也是共產黨革心洗面,取得人民諒解的一個機會。


The Obstacle to Compensating Victims of the Anti-Right Movement
By Jin Zhong

2007 marks the 50 th anniversary of the Anti-Rightist ( fanyou ) Campaign launched by Mao Zedong. We would like to thank the contributors who in this issue share their memories of the persecution. Because of its far-reaching consequences, the Anti-Rightist Movement is a page in Chinese history that people will never forget. Scholars from Shandong University recently signed a petition calling for the authorities to apologize and pay compensation to victims of the campaign. More than 1,500 victims of the persecution have signed the petition.

The Anti-Rightist Movement of 1957 is one of a series of persecutions that the communists launched after they took over the mainland, and is regarded by historians as Mao's first act against the will of the people, eventually culminating with the Cultural Revolution. There had been persecutions previously, but the Anti-Rightist Movement marked a turning point in which Mao reversed his spearhead and turned against his own colleagues on a massive scale. Moreover, he used an extremely devious tactic: He first called on people to pour out their hearts as a service to the country, then attacked the very people who criticized the Party in response to his call for patriotism. Casting away law and morality, Mao through this campaign set the precedent for the lawlessness of the Cultural Revolution, and legitimized naked totalitarianism. During the Anti-Rightist Movement, Mao proclaimed: “We [communists] are a hundred times more fierce than the Qin Emperor” ( China 's first emperor, famed for his ruthless cruelty), and, “If Lu Xun [one of China 's most famous and outspoken writers] had spoken up at this time, he would be in prison, too.” The score of these shameless remarks has never been settled.

The authorities admit to only 550,000 direct victims of the Anti-Rightist Movement, but studies indicate that the total actually exceeds one million, an alarming proportion of the five million intellectuals officially acknowledged at that time. Given that even Zhu Rongji, who became China 's premier during the 1990s, was included among the victims indicates the scope of the blow against China 's elite. The senseless destruction of families and even death as a result of the Anti-Rightist Movement remains a rich topic of modern artistic expression. A case in point is Ms. Zhang Yihe's literary reminiscences of the Movement, which have received high acclaim in Chinese communities worldwide. An attempt by the communist censorship organ, the General Administration of Press and Publication, to ban Zhang's most recent book has generated an outcry even on the mainland. The communists not only refuse to admit their wrongdoing, but do not even allow people to speak out against it.

Why is this? As pointed out in this issue by Mr. Shao Yanxiang, demanding compensation for the Anti-Rightist Movement is not a financial matter, but a political debt. It is a basic characteristic of totalitarian regimes to repudiate political debt and lay the blame on others. They derive their power not from public opinion and popular mandate but by forcing upon the people their self-righteousness and infallibility. That is why, even after hand-picked successors twice proved themselves disloyal, Mao never admitted his mistakes.

Likewise, even though Deng Xiaoping was a key figure in the Anti-Rightist Movement and the similarly evil anti-Soviet revisionism movement prior to the Cultural Revolution, years later, when receiving Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, Deng urged the people to look forward and ignore the past. While saying the Anti-Rightist Movement needed to be “corrected,” Deng insisted that at the time rightists were “out to kill” and had to be dealt with. During the Anti-Rightist Movement, Deng even said, “With eight million soldiers who's afraid of a school children's revolt!” Later during the 1989 student movement, it was Deng who used tanks to crush the people...The legacy of the dictatorship must not be interrupted; otherwise, new and old scores will have to be settled altogether and crush the regime.

There is no other regime in the world like this one. The Kuomintang apologized for the February 28, 1947 incident in Taiwan ; Germany apologized for World War II in 1995; the Soviet communists apologized both in and outside of their country; even the Emperor of Japan has apologized. Only the Chinese Communist Party, which caused the death of tens of millions of people, knows no such word as “apology.”

As for compensation, while China was in abject poverty just after the Cultural Revolution, it now holds the largest foreign reserves in the world. To appropriately compensate victims of the Anti-Rightist Movement and other political persecutions is not only necessary and feasible, but indeed the most important project for upholding social justice and building a harmonious society. It would also be an opportunity for the communist authorities to wipe their slate clean and win the people's regard.