As the nation reels from the news that student activist Dai Lin (林冠華) has taken his own life, an interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) showed the pressure he was under due to his participation in protests against the government’s planned changes to high-school student curriculum guidelines.
Lin was one of 33 people arrested on Thursday night last week for entering the Ministry of Education building and was facing possible prosecution along with 23 other activists.
During a telephone interview on Sunday — two days after his release on bail — Lin said that the principal of New Taipei City’s Juang Jing Vocational High School had visited him hours earlier to discuss his involvement in the demonstration.
Facebook screen grab
“The principal started off by asking me what I really wanted and if there were any messages I needed him to help me convey,” said Lin, who had applied for leave from the school to devote more time to the protests.
The 20-year-old said the principal asked him a lot of questions such as: “Did I know what I was doing? Had I thought this through? Had I fulfilled my duty [as a student]? Had I thought about my future and whether I would still be able to find a job after the arrest.”
Lin said he told the principal he had taken all those things into consideration before joining the protest against the opaque changes to the curriculum and that what had saddened the students the most was seeing their own teachers and principals dismissing their efforts out of hand.
“I think the principal achieved what he intended. After our talk, he went to speak to my mother downstairs for about 10 minutes. All of a sudden, my parents, who had never spoken against my participation said: ‘Who are you to fight this cause? Don’t be too full of yourself,’” Lin said.
“Their words made me disappointed in myself,” he added.
Asked if other student protesters had also been talked to by their schools’ authorities, Lin said the movement would not take any action if his was an isolated case, but that protesters would make their objections known if they ever discovered the Ministry of Education was behind a campaign of intimidation.
Lin said student movements were not frivolous activities because participants often had to undergo questioning from authorities and their characters can be attacked.
“I sincerely hope that parents and school authorities take the time to understand why students are fighting for this cause despite all the pressure we are under. Do not just tell us that the curriculum will no longer be our problem after we graduate and go to college,” he said.
Lin said that many authority figures show no understanding or empathy with the movement’s efforts.
“Maybe the schools are under pressure [from the ministry] or our movement has caused them too much inconvenience. Either way, they should not have questioned or dismissed our motives,” he said.
‘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