Social networking sites were yesterday inundated with several high-profile celebrities’ indignant comments over the government’s overnight forcible eviction of students occupying the Executive Yuan, which led to violent clashes and bloodshed and to the labeling of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) as “dictators.”
Hours after hundreds of students climbed over the barriers at the main entrances of the Executive Yuan compound and occupied the nation’s highest administrative body on Sunday night, Jiang ordered the National Police Agency to empty the building by yesterday morning.
Riot police launched five waves of eviction attempts between 1 am and 5am yesterday, resorting to brutal force and even water cannon. About 110 people were injured during the process.
“Ma and Jiang have responded to students’ occupation of the legislature with ... foul indifference. They pretend they are listening to what people have to say and respond politely, but they keep going their own way anyway... This is indifferent dictatorship,” Taiwanese filmmaker Yang Ya-che (楊雅?) wrote on Facebook yesterday.
“They have no problem talking with China, but when it comes to protesters, they would rather have police beat them down with batons than sit down with them... It has become clear what they will go down in history for: their autocracy,” Yang said.
Famed Taiwanese director Lin Cheng-sheng (林正盛) also took to Facebook to express his anger, saying: “While the bloodthirsty government’s order to beat up young students has deeply saddened me, it has also taught me to stand up against this bloodsucker with a stronger and softer willpower.”
Theater director Ko I-chen (柯一正) praised the courage shown by students who launched a sit-in inside the Legislative Yuan yesterday despite the government’s forcible eviction of protesters.
“Our nation’s leader has become too despicable for people to tolerate. Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) said they [students protesting inside the legislature] will never retreat!” Ko wrote on Facebook.
Lin is one of the protest leaders.
Taiwanese author and director Giddens Ko (柯景騰), also known as Jiu Ba Dao (九把刀), criticized the government’s use of violence against unarmed students.
“Before what happened last night, I used to believe that we could tolerate different opinions... Perhaps we will never be able to agree on anything in a civil society, but I have only one clear and simple stance now, that all of us should stand together against government-led violence,” Giddens Ko said.
Giddens Ko said the students’ occupation of the Executive Yuan was not a disgrace to democracy, adding that the real shame was that people who were capable of changing the nation’s destiny refused to come forward at a time of national crisis.
Taiwanese director Chen Yu-hsun (陳玉勳) dismissed some netizens’ characterization of the attempted occupation of the Executive Yuan as a “foolhardy operation,” saying that would be tantamount to “blaming victims for being raped.”
“I never knew how autocratic regimes were created when I was little, but I do now,” Chen said.
Indie singer-songwriter Deserts Chang (張懸) said what was happening in Taiwan today was inevitable for any nation whose governmental systems and operations required a fundamental overhaul.
“Even though there are major repercussions, even though we can only painfully and slowly change the government’s ‘ugly face,’ this is the price people who call this island home are willing to pay,” Chang said.
A number of celebrities including Chang, Chen, Giddens Ko, filmmaker Umin Boya (馬志翔) and actress Gin Oy (歐陽靖) also changed their Facebook profile pictures to black yesterday to mourn for the wounded students and the nation’s blemished democracy.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
RSS