The Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan yesterday marked the 1,000th day of their sit-in outside the legislature, vowing not to give up their fight for Taiwanese independence and to defend Taiwan’s sovereignty.
“We’ve been here for 1,000 days — this is a record in Taiwan’s history. We will continue our struggle to defend Taiwan’s sovereignty,” the alliance’s convener, Tsay Ting-kuei (蔡丁貴), told dozens of people gathered outside the Legislative Yuan in the evening.
Members of the alliance and their supporters launched their sit-in rally in October 2008 after taking part in a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)-organized protest against President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
At the time, Tsay and his supporters called for revisions to the Referendum Act (公民投票法), which has a threshold for passage that they say is too high.
Later, in response to a demonstration initiated by college students calling for the abolition of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), Tsay and his supporters added the demand to their list.
As the government had not responded positively to their demands, their protest continued.
Healthy Taiwan Society president Kuo Cheng-tian (郭正典), one of the participants of the sit-in, urged the public not to re-elect Ma next year.
“If the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] remains in power, it will have nothing to fear and will place harsher restrictions on civil rights,” he said. “At that time, we may have our own ‘Jasmine Revolution’ in Taiwan.”
Independent presidential candidate Elleen Huang (黃越綏) also showed up at last night’s rally, where she announced that her presidential bid would be her final political activity.
“I know I am not going to get elected, but I still would like people to sign the petition for me to become an official candidate,” Huang said.
“Each signature you sign for me is a slam on China [and sends the message] that Taiwan wants to remain independent. It’s also a reminder to the DPP of the Taiwanese people’s wishes,” she said.
By law, an independent candidate must collect 250,000 signatures to be on the ballot.
As of yesterday, Huang had gathered 25,000 signatures.
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
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