** Forum Nasional Indonesia PPI India Mailing List ** ** Untuk bergabung dg Milis Nasional kunjungi: ** Situs Milis: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ppiindia/ ** ** Beasiswa dalam negeri dan luar negeri S1 S2 S3 dan post-doctoral scholarship, kunjungi http://informasi-beasiswa.blogspot.com **http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/01/06/news/gang.php
Obituary: Yao Wenyuan, 74, last of Gang of Four The Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse FRIDAY, JANUARY 6, 2006 BEIJING Yao Wenyuan, the final surviving member of the Gang of Four that terrorized China during the violent 1966-76 Cultural Revolution by persecuting thousands of people, has died, the government said Friday. He was 74. Yao's death on Dec. 23 was blamed on diabetes, the official Xinhua press agency reported. It did not say where he had died or explain the delay in reporting his death. The Gang of Four, reportedly given its name by the Chinese leader at the time, Mao Zedong, directed the purge of moderate party officials and intellectuals during the Cultural Revolution. Yao was the group's propagandist, later dubbed the killer with a pen by state media. Led by Mao's wife, Jiang Qing, the Gang of Four and its allies inflicted physical and emotional damage that still reverberates in Chinese society, despite loosened social controls and economic reforms that have raised living standards. Nearly every Chinese city dweller who was alive at the time can tell of a relative or friend who was beaten, harassed or driven to suicide, often by tormenters who took advantage of the unrest to avenge grudges. The violence pitted neighbor against neighbor, wrecked the economy, pushed the country to the brink of famine and forced a generation of intellectuals to work in the countryside. The members of the Gang of Four were arrested one month after Mao's death in September 1976. Yao, a Shanghai journalist, was convicted of trying to gain power by persecuting officials and members of the public. He spent 20 years in prison before his release in 1996. It was not known what he had done since his release. Evidence at Yao's televised trial included a diary entry in which he asked: "Why can't we shoot a few counterrevolutionary elements? After all, dictatorship is not like embroidering flowers." On Jiang's orders, Yao fired the first salvo of the Cultural Revolution, writing a review condemning a popular Beijing play as an attack on Mao. He was rewarded with a seat on the party's ruling Politburo. Yao later confessed to falsifying evidence against Deng Xiaoping, who was purged during the Cultural Revolution but emerged as China's supreme leader in 1978. "His weapon to kill people was the pen," a government magazine said in 1981 after Yao's conviction. Jiang died in 1991 in custody, reportedly by suicide. Another member of the Gang of Four, Wang Hongwen, died in 1992. The third member, Zhang Chunqiao, died last May. The Cultural Revolution was one of the most sensational events in the power struggles that wracked the Communist Party in the decades after it won power in 1949. The Gang of Four received most of the official blame for the political violence as the government tried to shift attention away from the role played by others, including thousands of officials. David Zweig, an expert on China at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said Yao's significance in the Gang of Four came through his writing skills. "He was a very political writer," Zweig said. "He used the pen very effectively for political battles. That was his hallmark." [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Clean water saves lives. Help make water safe for our children. http://us.click.yahoo.com/CHhStB/VREMAA/E2hLAA/BRUplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> *************************************************************************** Berdikusi dg Santun & Elegan, dg Semangat Persahabatan. Menuju Indonesia yg Lebih Baik, in Commonality & Shared Destiny. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ppiindia *************************************************************************** __________________________________________________________________________ Mohon Perhatian: 1. Harap tdk. memposting/reply yg menyinggung SARA (kecuali sbg otokritik) 2. Pesan yg akan direply harap dihapus, kecuali yg akan dikomentari. 3. Reading only, http://dear.to/ppi 4. Satu email perhari: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 5. No-email/web only: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 6. kembali menerima email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ppiindia/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ** Forum Nasional Indonesia PPI India Mailing List ** ** Untuk bergabung dg Milis Nasional kunjungi: ** Situs Milis: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ppiindia/ ** ** Beasiswa dalam negeri dan luar negeri S1 S2 S3 dan post-doctoral scholarship, kunjungi http://informasi-beasiswa.blogspot.com **