Fri, May 24, 2024 page3

• Protests across Taiwan to be held today

  DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: Groups have organized protests at the Chiayi Cultural Park in Chiayi City, the National Museum of Taiwan Literature in Tainan and Kaohsiung Central Park

  • By Ko Yu-hao and Jason Pan / Staff reporters
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  Activist groups and civil society organizations called for nationwide demonstrations today to demand transparency in the legislative process, as legislators are scheduled to resume voting on a set of controversial legislative reforms.

  Today’s planned activities led by Taiwan Citizen Front are to be a continuation of Tuesday’s protests against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) lawmakers attempts to pass bills without undergoing what critics say is the proper review process.

  In a news release yesterday, Taiwan Citizen Front, the Economic Democracy Union and other groups urged people to protest on the streets bordering the Legislative Yuan in Taipei to the north and south all day, starting in the morning.

  

  Protesters against proposed legislative reform bills gather in Kaohsiung yesterday.

  Photo: Ko Yu-hao, Taipei Times

  “The KMT and TPP are colluding in using a non-transparent ‘black box’ process to circumvent regular deliberation and review processes, refusing to engage in dialogue with Democratic Progressive Party legislators and using violent tactics to push through the bills,” the release said.

  “The proposed bills would abuse the authority of legislators and is contrary to the Constitution, undermines the separation of powers among the five branches of government and would endanger national security,” it added.

  The massive turnout of more than 30,000 people on Tuesday sent a strong message that people are fed up with deceit and opaque legislative processes, it said.

  “What took place in the legislative chamber on Tuesday was not democracy; it was a return to the old days of authoritarian rule,” the release said.

  In addition to the main demonstration at the Legislative Yuan, the groups have organized protests in Taichung starting at 1pm and Changhua City starting at 6pm at the cities’ main railway stations.

  Protests in southern Taiwan are to be held at Chiayi Cultural Park (嘉義文化公園) in Chiayi City at 6pm, Tainan’s National Museum of Taiwan Literature at 2pm and Kaohsiung’s Central Park (中央公園) at 7pm. In Taitung City, a protest is to begin on Nanjing Road starting at 11am.

  The Taiwan Statebuilding Party yesterday evening held a sit-in in front of the KMT’s Taipei office with several hundred people holding placards to protest KMT lawmakers.

  The slogan were similar to those at Tuesday’s demonstration, including “Legislative abuse of power, democracy sliding backwards” and “No deliberation is not democracy.”

  One woman surnamed Wong (黃) said she fled Hong Kong to Taiwan 10 years ago to live in a democratic society, “but now we are facing the KMT selling out Taiwan... We must not let Taiwan become another Hong Kong.”
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