There has been a transition from a wave of social movements to the formation of new political power after last year’s student-led Sunflower movement protests, as society witnesses young people actively participating in politics and their influence resounds beyond this past year, an academic said yesterday.
The administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has taken note of public grievances that have boiled over since the 2012 opposition to media monopolization, followed by various other movements culminating in the Sunflower movement on March 18 last year, which started as a response to the attempted forced passage of a cross-strait service trade agreement, Academia Sinica Institute of Sociology associate research fellow Wu Jieh-min (吳介民) said.
“However, Ma’s administration has not made any changes to its governance,” he said.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Due to the Ma administration’s slow reaction to public demands suffocating society, the eruption of the 318 movement — as the Sunflower movement is also known — spurred young people into action to take back the nation’s future and lead society forward, Wu said.
The 23-day occupation of the legislative complex, including the main legislative chamber, was a test of the maturity and resilience of Taiwan’s democratic politics, as it showed the extent to which society accepted practices of civil disobedience, Wu said.
While the fact that no police force was deployed to evict protesters from the legislative floor during the siege received positive recognition, the crackdown at the Executive Yuan on March 23 last year and the ensuing judicial prosecution of protesters in ongoing trials require the public’s continuing attention, Wu said.
If Ma’s administration continues to turn a blind eye to justice and issues of concern to the younger generation, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) will lose the presidential election next year in similar fashion to its rout in the Nov. 29 last year nine-in-one elections, Wu said.
In other news, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday said that the Sunflower movement highlighted the fact that the nation’s politics has long suffered from “a deficiency of transparency and public participation.”
The problems that Taiwan faces are not issues of a political or ideological nature, but rather issues affecting the daily lives of people, Tsai said.
If transparency could be introduced into the political system and room made for public participation in politics, “politicians would make less mistakes,” Tsai said.
Tsai said that political parties should serve the public good and must shoulder the responsibility of carrying society forward, adding that “political parties alone cannot change society.”
The DPP will serve as an instrument to gather people from all walks of life to shape the future of the nation and face challenges ahead, she said.
Tsai, the DPP’s prospective candidate for next year’s presidential election in January, said she has been thinking about what the party’s mission is after losing the presidency to Ma in 2012.
“As the Sunflower movement demonstrated, politics is not just the business of political parties and politicians. Politics has to do with choice of values. It is how people respond to public affairs. It is something that everyone should participate in,” Tsai said.
The Sunflower movement has presented challenges for political parties, Tsai said, adding that another movement of fiercer and bigger scale would erupt if political parties fail to cope with these challenges.
‘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
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
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
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and