Protesters trap politicians in legislature

EXITS BLOCKED:Legislators from both the pan-blue and pan-green camps complained that their rights were being violated. Protesters later blocked rush-hour traffic

By Lee I-chia  /  Staff reporter

Antinuclear protesters create a traffic jam in Taipei yesterday evening as they block the junction of Zhongxiao E and Linsen S roads near the Legislative Yuan.

Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times

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Several clashes broke out between protesters and police in Taipei yesterday during a new wave of antinuclear protests encircling the Legislative Yuan in a bid to put pressure on lawmakers.

The protesters later in the afternoon moved to the nearby intersection of Linsen S Road and Zhongxiao E Road, where rush-hour traffic was disrupted as the crowd’s numbers swelled to nearly 1,000.

Hundreds of activists — mostly Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan members and young people responding to an call by alliance convener Tsay Ting-kuei (蔡丁貴) on Facebook on Monday night — began gathering in the morning in front of the Legislative Yuan.

Tsay divided the protesters into six groups and had alliance members lead them to block six of the gateways to the Legislative Yuan, where many barricades have recently been set up to prevent protesters from entering the building.

“We can allow people to enter, but do not let legislators come out,” Tsay told the protesters.

Tsay said that the goal was to pressure the lawmakers to either agree to terminate construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant or to amend the Referendum Act (公民投票法).

The protest was targeted at lawmakers and Cabinet members attending a meeting of the legislature at 2:30pm to support former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Lin I-hsiung’s (林義雄) hunger strike and end the use of nuclear power.

Many young protesters sitting on the ground held pictures showing the faces of legislators so they would be able to recognize them.

When People First Party Legislator Thomas Lee (李桐豪) tried to leave the complex about noontime from an exit on Qingdao E Road, protesters stationed at that gate stood up to block him and shouted: “Go back to the meeting.”

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chiang Hui-chen (江惠貞) was also blocked by protesters when she tried to leave from a small exit in an alley at about the same time.

She said the protesters were violating her right to move freely and told them that she had urgent matters to attend to, but the protesters told her that the nuclear power issue was more urgent.

After several failed attempts to pass the protesters, Chiang was escorted by several police officers to a car.

More protesters tried to stop her along the way as she tried to get in the car, and minor clashes with police occurred again.

About 12:30pm, the windshield of KMT Legislator Lin Ming-chen’s (林明溱) car was broken as a protester jumped onto the hood of the car as Lin he tried to leave via Jinan Road.

Two protesters who had allegedly blocked Lin’s car were arrested.

Amid clashes with the police, Tsay lost consciousness and was sent to hospital.

Displaying a bump on his head, a young man surnamed Tao (陶) — who also had a hole in the back of his T-shirt and scratches on his neck — said that when police officers tried to make way for the legislator to leave, he was pulled by his hair and kicked in the head by police officers after he fell to the ground.

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), who was blocked for a while at an exit before she was able to return to her office at about 1:30pm, posted a complaint on Facebook.

“Is blocking and restricting personal freedom a value that we are defending? Can it achieve the democracy that Lin I-hsiung is risking his life to stand for?” she wrote.

In the afternoon, the growing crowd seemed to be poorly organized, with sporadic clashes with the police and occasional arguments between protesters.

At about 4pm, hundreds of protesters surrounded KMT Legislator Lu Chia-chen’s (盧嘉辰) car near the intersection of Linsen S Road and Qingdao E Road. Riot police and SWAT officers appeared and tried to push or drag the protesters away from the car, which lead to more physical confrontations.

It took about an hour before Lu’s car was to finally able to move away from the crowd.

A medical person said that five protesters were injured by the police in that confrontation, including one who was hospitalized for bleeding after being hit in the head by a police shield.

At about 6pm, the protesters suddenly moved toward the intersection of Linsen S Road and Zhongxiao E Road and paralyzed traffic by sitting on the ground and chanting. Traffic on Zhongxiao E Road began moving again by 7pm.

My Opinion: Rights of workers suffer in reshuffle

Rights of workers suffer in reshuffle

By Cheng Chih-yu 成之約

When the Council of Labor Affairs was transformed into the Ministry of Labor Affairs, workers may have failed to notice that two other agencies were also closed down — the Labor Pension Fund Supervisory Committee and the Labor Insurance Supervisory Committee. Because these two agencies were responsible for overseeing the Labor Pension Fund and the Labor Insurance Fund, any supervisory shortcomings on the competent authority’s part will affect the workers’ rights and interests.

According to the plan, the competent authority is to set up a labor fund supervisory committee to review the use and other aspects of the Labor Pension Fund, the Labor Insurance Fund, the Employment Insurance Fund, the Arrear Wage Payment Fund and the Occupational Accident Protection Fund.

Although the membership of the supervisory committee continues to be made up of representatives of labor, employers, government and academia, there are doubts as to how effective it will be to have a single committee oversee to review five different funds.

Based on my own experience as a member of the Labor Pension Fund Supervisory Committee, every meeting requires between two and four hours.

It is clear that in the new system the review and oversight will not be sufficiently detailed or in-depth.

Even more importantly, the labor fund supervisory committee will be a task force set up based on the Regulations for the Departmental Affairs of the Ministry of Labor, which raises the question of whether its independence and powers will measure up to the independence and powers of the past labor pension fund and labor insurance supervisory committees.

Although the labor pension fund supervisory committee was an administrative agency and the labor insurance supervisory committee was a state-owned financial institution, their membership composition and appointment as well as procedural rules were clearly specified in law.

It is clear that such an oversight mechanism reflected at least a certain amount of independence and power.

By comparison, the Ministry of Labor is an administrative agency and unless there are other clear legal regulations, the ministry’s various task forces, regardless of what they are called, will at most be consultative in nature, which makes one question their level of independence.

As it is time for this organizational transition, the government should give thorough consideration as to what kind of oversight should be applied to the labor fund if it really wants to manifest its earnest intentions.

The only way to go about this is for the government to consider whether it needs to establish a supervisory mechanism at the Cabinet level.

The difficulty in establishing an independent agency is due to the Ministry of Labor’s organizational staff restrictions, perhaps the Board for Decision on Unfair Labor Practices based on the Act for Settlement of Labor-Management Disputes (勞資爭議處理法) could serve as a reference for how the ministry could set up an independent labor fund supervisory committee and give workers faith and peace of mind.

Cheng Chih-yu is a professor in the Institute for Labor Research at National Chengchi University.

Translated by Perry Svensson

Antinuclear protest to continue: groups

PROTECTING THE FUTURE:Mothers, concerned about nuclear power and nuclear waste, said they joined the rally with their children to stand up for future generations

By Lee I-chia  /  Staff reporter

Protesters occupy part of Zhongxiao W Road in front of the Taipei Railway Station during an antinuclear demonstration in Taipei yesterday.

Photo: Mandy Cheng, AFP

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Tens of thousands took to the streets of Taipei yesterday afternoon in an antinuclear protest that also occupied a section of Zhongxiao W Road in front of Taipei Railway Station.

At 3pm, Ketagalan Boulevard was packed with protesters wearing yellow ribbons that read: “Stop the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant. Give Power Back to the People,” as they listened to speeches and prepared to march.

Green Citizens’ Action Alliance chairperson Lai Wei-chieh (賴偉傑) said the government had threatened the public with increased electricity bills and weakening competitiveness if the nation gives up nuclear power, but he said that Germany — an example cited by the government — uses a different electricity price calculation model, has strong global competitiveness and has the most sustainable energy sector in the world.

Taiwan Power Co’s (Taipower, 台電) data showed 197 components of the plant’s No. 2 reactor have been removed and installed into the No. 1 reactor, Lai said, adding that he did not trust the safety inspections being carried out by Taipower and the designer, General Electric Co.

“How can we feel safe about the plant?” Lai asked.

“We live in a beautiful country where you can reach the sea and the mountains in the same day, so why destroy such a beautiful place?” film director and frequent participant in antinuclear demonstrations Ko I-chen (柯一正) said. “If you [the government] cannot deal with nuclear waste, you should not create more.”

Former Democratic Progressive Party chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄), who is on hunger strike, represents the will of millions of Taiwanese, Ko said, adding that it is shameful that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administarion has treated him like “a child asking for candies.”

Green Citizens’ Action Alliance secretary-general Tsuei Su-hsin (崔愫欣) read out the protesters’ “non-cooperation movement” statement.

“We have two demands — stop construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, retire the operating plants as soon as possible and amend the ‘bird-cage’ Referendum Act (公民投票法),” Tsuei said. “Yet officials in power still neglect our demands, stall and shirk their responsibilities with excuses.”

Holding signs reading: “I am a mother and against nuclear power,” several women said they formed a mothers’ group on Facebook when they saw students being injured by police officers during the forced eviction of protesters from the Executive Yuan last month.

“We treat all Taiwanese children as our children. How can we cower away and not protect them?” Sung Ya-chuan (宋雅娟) said.

Within an hour, the parade reached Zhongxiao W Road, where many protesters removed the center road blocks so that they could occupy both sides of the road and paralyze the traffic, triggering police to declare the protest illegal.

However, with protesters continuing to pack both sides of the road, riot police departed shortly afterwards, with the crowds applauding and cheering their departure.

Organizers sounded a simulated nuclear emergency warning siren and asked protesters to lay on the ground, mimicking the scene of a real nuclear disaster.

A woman surnamed Wang (王) from Greater Taichung said she first attended an antinuclear protest as a child in 2000 with her mother, and that now, as an adult, she wanted to protest because there is no safe way of dealing with nuclear waste.

A woman surnamed Wu (吳), a mother accompanied by her baby in a stroller, three-year-old son and husband, said they attended the parade because she cannot endure the government’s continued threats and its unwillingness to develop alternative energy sources. She said that the dangerous plants and nuclear waste should not be left for the next generation to deal with.

The organizers said those occupying Zhongxiao W Road plan to continue until at least tomorrow.

According to police estimates, more than 28,000 people took part in the rally, while the organizers said about 50,000 participated.

Meanwhile, in response to the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) announcement that it has agreed to halt construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant’s No. 1 reactor and that No. 2 reactor would be “suspended,” antinuclear groups said that while they acknowleged the KMT’s decision, they do not accept it because the policy had not been announced by the Executive Yuan, but by the party.

“The announcement showed that the government cannot tell the difference between the KMT and the nation’s government,” Citizen of the Earth Taiwan’s Taipei Office director Tsai Chung-yueh (蔡中岳) said.

Separately, Chen Shang-chih (陳尚志), a National Chung Cheng University professor who is serving as Lin’s spokesperson during his hunger strike, also said Lin “would not respond to the decision of a political party.”

“It was a KMT meeting today. Why should we respond to a party? Mr Lin will not respond until the Executive Yuan orders constitutional action or the Legislative Yuan reaches a resolution,” Chen said.

Chen said Lin would continue his hunger strike.

Additional reporting by Chris Wang

Ma protesters blocked by police officers

RAILWAYS TOUR:The president visited the railway station and a tea farm in Luye before having a tour of the Hualien to Taitung railway line electrification project

By Shih Hsiu-chuan and Wang Hsiu-ting  /  Staff reporter

President Ma Ying-jeou, smiling, second right, is surrounded by Taitung police and security guards during a visit to Luye Railway Station in Taitung County yesterday.

Photo: Wang Hsiu-ting, Taipei Times

Taitung County police, security officers and Taiwan Railways Administration staff yesterday tried to stop demonstrators from protesting against President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) by standing between them and Ma, clapping their hands and chanting slogans of welcome to the president.

Ma was paying a visit to Luye Railway Station in Taitung to inspect renovations, as well as the electrification of the railway line between Hualien and Taitung, which is in the testing stage and is scheduled to be launched in June.

Ma was expected to arrive at 9:30am and traffic control measures had been put in place early in the morning, with vehicles being stopped hundreds of meters away from the train station.

Despite the measure, about 20 people managed to reach the station demanding that Ma step down and that nuclear waste be removed from Lanyu (蘭嶼), also known as Orchid Island, which is home to Tao Aborigines.

The protesters held banners stating their opposition to the controversial cross-strait service trade agreement and the completion of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City.

Police officers positioned themselves to block the protesters from crossing the plaza in front of the station.

In one exchange between the protesters and police, who were pushed up against the protesters, a female protester shouted: “Why are you standing so close to me?”

Some of the protesters moved to gather at another place, but were again met by another wall of police.

When Ma arrived at the station, the protesters shouted: “President, apologize,” “Ma Ying-jeou, step down,” while railway staff chanted: “Welcome President Ma to Luye Railway Station.”

Ma appeared to be unaffected by the protesters, walking into the station, smiling. He stayed for 10 minutes talking to train drivers and other staff.

The protesters shouted at Ma again as he walked out of the station, while the police clapped their hands in an effort to drown out the shouting until the motorcade drove away.

Ma then visited a tea farm in Luye Township (鹿野), before inspecting a railway project in Taitung City.

To prevent protesters from following the president, vehicles were cleared from the roads at a distance of between 300m and 400m from each destination.

During the tour of the Taitung City project, Ma apologized to Taitung residents for the delay in completion of the electrification of the Hualien to Taitung line, which is now scheduled to be finished by the end of June.

He said that while electrified railway lines were established in western Taiwan 30 years ago, there is no such service in the eastern part of the country.

This is unfair to Taitung residents, Ma said, apologizing for what he said was the government’s lack of priority regarding the development of the electrified rail service in the eastern counties of Taitung and Hualien, which will be resolved on its completion.

The project was originally scheduled to be completed at the end of last year, but was delayed due to typhoons and late delivery of construction materials from abroad, the government said.

“Sunflower Revolution” in Taiwan : STOP Police Brutality, NO to Free Trade Agreements NOW!

“Sunflower Revolution” in Taiwan : STOP Police Brutality, NO to Free Trade Agreements NOW!

http://viacampesina.org/.../1589-sunflower-revolution-in...

Appeal for international solidarity of Taiwan Rural Front (TRF) and Taiwan Farmers Union (TFU)
(March 25, 2014, Taiwan) Taiwan Rural Front (TRF) and Taiwan Farmers Union (TFU), member of La Via Campesina in East and Southeast Asia, launch an emergency appeal for international solidarity against current administration’s rush for cross-strait free trade agreement and excessive use of police force.

Pressure on the Ma administration has been mounting since the ruling Chinese Nationalist party (KMT) pushed to bypass full legislative review of the controversial Cross Straits Service Trade agreement (CSSTA) on March 17.

Enraged by the politicking of the ruling party, nearly three hundred young Taiwanese stormed the legislature on March 18 and declared indefinite occupation of its main chamber. The occupy movement quickly gained momentum as over ten thousand Taiwanese flocked all sides of the legislature building in support of students’ cause. Represented by an alliance consisted of students, lawyers and civil organizations, the movement has since demanded that1) the CSSTA be retracted, 2) a formal monitoring mechanism for all cross-strait agreements be established, and 3) negotiations of any sort between Taiwan and China be halted before such monitoring mechanism exists.
However, president Ma rejected all three demands on March 23 and ordered violent suppression of another group of protesters who had occupied the cabinet since March 22. Serious clash between police and protesters happened in the early hours of March 24. Launching 6 waves of attack in 5 hours, police first ordered journalists to leave and evicted those who had refused to leave by force. And besides firing high-pressured water cannon at peaceful protesters, riot police also swung batons at protesters and used their PVC shields to hit sitting students on the legs. Even members of the medical team were beaten up. Nearly two hundred protesters, including students and several TRF members, suffered injuries from violent beating, dragging and pushing. 61 people were arrested for trespassing.

In light of the serious police crisis, Taiwan Peasants Union and Taiwan Rural Front urgently seek international solidarity from all members of Via Campesina, to join hands with us in rejecting free trade agreements and condemning police brutality and repression of people’s rights of assembly and speech by government of Taiwan.

We insist that: First, international human rights standards require that in dispersing assemblies, police must avoid the use of force or, where that is not practicable, must restrict any such force to the minimum necessary. Any decision to disperse an assembly should therefore be taken only as a last resort and in line with the principles of necessity and proportionality. Police brutality against peaceful protestors shown on March 24 apparently breached such international protocol.

Second, it has been proven that trade liberalization is the direct cause of the widening gap between the rich and the poor in Taiwan. Ma administration repeatedly claims that South Korean people welcomed and have benefited from the Korea-U.S. FTA (KORUS FTA). But our sisters and brothers from KWPA and KPL taught us otherwise: KORUS FTA does not simply lower or eliminate tariffs; it is also an unfair trade pact with toxic provisions. Free Trade Agreement is unfair trade, and joining CSSTA will only push 99% of Taiwanese further into the neoliberal international trade regime, which is a race to the bottom in prices, wages, and environmental degradation. We demand that Taiwan government to take immediately action to stop all free trade negotiations and agreements that are harmful to farmers, consumers, and the environment!

For solidarity message please sent to: nikar2009@gmail.com your message will translate and inspire our struggle in Taiwan

Anxiety and insomnia on the rise as people fret over Taiwan’s future: doctors
擔心台灣未來　焦慮失眠比率升

A man undergoes an overnight sleep study in a sleep lab in Taipei on Aug. 13, 2012.
一位男子二０一二年八月十三日在台北市一間睡眠實驗室進行過夜睡眠檢測。

Photo: Wang Chang-min, Liberty Times
照片：自由時報記者王昶閔

As of late the public has been fixated on the anti-service trade pact movement. A significant number of people have been seeing doctors for psychological issues caused by anxiety and insomnia triggered by concern for various social factors, including Taiwan’s future and the student movement.

Hung Chi-wei, an attending physician at Chi Mei Hospital’s family medicine department, says that he has recently treated a spate of clinical cases like this. Some of the patients, originally quite fond of exercising, suddenly became sluggish for reasons unknown and only wanted to lounge around the house, never going out anywhere else. Even if some of them have wanted to see a doctor, they did not know which department to make an appointment with.

Hung says that family physicians often come across this type of patient, who consults a family doctor first because they do not know which type of specialist to see, as they have so many symptoms at the same time. There has been a slight rise in the number of patients visiting psychiatry departments in recent years, Hung says, adding that some of them complain about Taiwan’s stagnant economy, rising prices or how hard it is to make a living. The right amount of stress can easily give rise to mental disorders such as generalized anxiety or depression, Hung says.

Most patients with generalized anxiety disorder tend to be unaware that they have the disorder because the symptoms tend to fluctuate. When stress levels increase in everyday life or at work it typically exacerbates the patient’s condition. Common symptoms include muscle tension, an overly excited autonomic nervous system, feeling keyed up and on edge, sometimes having trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, and feeling irritable. The symptoms for depression include feeling dejected and losing interest in things.

TODAY’S WORDS
今日單字

1. fixate v.

注視 (zhu4 shi4)

例: Why are you suddenly so fixated on your appearance and body image?

(你為什麼突然注重你的外貌與身材？

2. trigger v.

引起；觸發 (yin2 qi3; chu4 fa1)

例: The reporter’s comment triggered her anger.

(記者的評論觸怒了她。)

3. dejected adj.

沮喪的；情緒低落的；氣餒的 (ju3 sang4 de5; qing2 xu4 di1 luo4 de5; qi4 nei3 de5)

例: The fans were dejected after the team suffered a bitter lost in the finals.

(球隊在決賽輸得很慘讓球迷情緒低落。)

Regardless of whether it is generalized anxiety disorder or depression, Hung says that as soon as you discover possibly having one of the two disorders, you should see a doctor for diagnosis and treatment as soon as possible.

(Liberty Times, Translated by Kyle Jeffcoat)

最近反服貿運動引起社會關心矚目，有不少民眾因為擔心台灣未來前途以及學運等社會現象，出現焦慮失眠引發身心疾病情況而求助醫生。

奇美醫院家庭醫學科主治醫師洪啟偉表示，最近在臨床上常有此類病人就醫看診，也有患者原本很愛運動，但卻不知是何原因卻突然提不起勁，只想躲在家中，其他地方都不想去，即使想要就醫也不曉得要掛哪一科。

洪啟偉說，家醫科門診常會遇到此類病人，因為身體多發性症狀不知道該看哪科門診，而先到家醫科做諮詢。近年罹患身心科而前來就診的患者比率略有偏高，有些患者會抱怨這幾年國內經濟成長不佳、物價上漲，日子過得很辛苦等等，在壓力之下很容易引起廣泛性焦慮、憂鬱症等身心科疾病。

廣泛性焦慮症由於病情起伏不定，大部分的病人不會有所察覺，在生活工作壓力增加時病情會惡化，常見症狀包括有肌肉緊繃、自律神經亢奮、過度警戒且過度敏感等，有時也會有難以入睡或睡不安穩、易怒等情形；此外，憂鬱症則是以憂鬱情緒或失去興趣為主要症狀。

洪啟偉指出，不論是廣泛性焦慮症或是憂鬱症，一旦發現有廣泛性焦慮症或是憂鬱症的可能時，建議尋求醫師的診斷與治療。

（自由時報記者林孟婷）

Anger at police tactics sparks siege of station precinct

By Chien Li-chung and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer, and CNA

Protesters surround the building of the Zhongzheng First Police Precinct in Taipei last night after police officers removed members of the public from the front of the Legislative Yuan after the occupation of the legislative compound ended on Thursday evening.

Photo: CNA

Nearly 1,000 people unhappy with the forced dispersal of protesters from outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei early yesterday following the ending of the Sunflower movement occupation attempted to besiege the Zhongzheng First Police Precinct last night, sparking a tense face-off and sporadic clashes with officers.

The stand-off was ongoing as of press time.

The protesters demanded that precinct chief Fang Yang-ning (方仰寧) apologize and step down for reneging on his pledge to not forcibly disperse protesters from the square outside the Legislative Yuan.

They also asked that Fang appear before them to explain his actions.

As the number of protesters swelled, hundreds of police officers were deployed to the front gate of the precinct building, and anti-riot police were on standby.

Some of the protesters scattered ghost money, normally seen as currency for the dead, around the precinct doors.

Fang appeared outside the precinct at about 7pm, with Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) standing behind him, and told the crowd that if he had done anything wrong, he would be willing to be transferred or resign.

He said he would apologize if he had caused a public misunderstanding, and he also said that no one had been injured during the eviction process.

His remarks did little to appease the protesters.

Hau said last night that he would not ask Fang to resign because the officer had done nothing wrong.

Members of the Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan and their supporters remained in the plaza outside the front of the Legislative Yuan overnight after student-led protesters from the Sunflower movement left the legislature’s main chamber early on Thursday evening.

Despite a promise from Fang about 2:30am yesterday that police officers would not use heavy-handed methods to clear the area, police began picking up demonstrators and moving them away from the square at 7am.

Legislative siege is over

DEMOCRACY FIGHT LIVES ON:One of the nation’s biggest resistance movements ended yesterday with activists vowing never to back down from the quest for freedom

By Loa Iok-sin  /  Staff Reporter

Students hold sunflowers as they leave the Legislative Yuan yesterday and enter Jinan Road in Taipei.

Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times

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With hugs and tearful farewells, hundreds of student activists who have occupied the Legislative Yuan for 24 days walked out of the legislative chamber yesterday into a cheering crowd who gave them a heroes’ welcome.

“Leaving the legislature and retreating from the legislative chamber was a very difficult decision to make, because we know that the expectations, responsibilities and pressures we will face after leaving the legislature will not be lower,” student leader Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) told the protesters on the legislative floor before asking all protesters to leave the room.

“I would like to stress that leaving here does not mean that we are giving up or backing down. In fact, this movement for democracy that began on March 18 is a continuation of Taiwan’s history of resistance and the quest for freedom that has been ongoing for more than 100 years. We will continue the history and we will never back down or give up,” he added.

Lin said that after leaving the legislature, he and his partners planned to travel the country to connect with the approximately 500,000 people who took part in a demonstration on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office Building on March 30.

“The 500,000 people are not just a number, and our next step is to go into different corners of the country to get to know these people,” Lin said. “The campaign is not over yet. We came with dreams in our minds and we leave with responsibilities on our shoulders.”

He also warned that if the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) broke the promise by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) — to adopt legislation to monitor cross-strait agreements before reviewing the cross-strait service trade agreement — a bigger protest would be mobilized.

“Occupation of the Legislative Yuan is only the preface to our action, the first chapter will soon start within civil society,” Lin said. “We will be back, we definitely will.”

“We will definitely meet again,” a group of students told each other as they hugged before leaving the legislative chamber, while others were busy cleaning up and restoring the chamber to its original state.

Another student leader, Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷), thanked all those who took part in the movement, regardless of their age, profession or background, while dismissing the media’s naming of the movement as a “student movement.”

“From the very beginning, this movement has not been a ‘student movement,’ as many people who are not in the movement define it. It is a movement that involves all citizens of this country, as well as many foreign residents living in Taiwan and Taiwanese living overseas,” Chen said.

He thanked medical personnel, lawyers and members of other civic groups, notably the Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan, for their support and help.

While many people made a distinction between protesters at the Legislative Yuan and those who once besieged the Executive Yuan on March 23, Chen said that those activists are also their partners and that the violent crackdown by the police against those people should be remembered.

Besides clearing all the posters, slogans, banners, medical equipment, food and water from the legislative chamber and removing piles of chairs that blocked the chamber’s entrance, the students also returned the speaker’s gavel and placed it on the table in front of the speaker’s seat before leaving.

“Doing so is a symbolic gesture that we are now returning the legislative chamber to lawmakers,” a student said. “We hope that our lawmakers will, from now on, keep what the people want in their minds while formulating legislation.”

The students also left a classical satirical work, The Bureaucracy Exposed (官場現形記), on the table, with a note urging the legislature to adopt the promised monitoring legislation before reviewing the cross-strait trade pact and refrain from listening to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), but listen to the public instead.

Originally scheduled to deliver a speech, Lin and Chen left the rally before it ended at about 8:30pm.

After the rally, some still refused to leave, and as of press time, several civic groups, including the Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan, were still rallying outside the legislature, saying that they would wait to be evicted by police.

Meanwhile, shortly after the students’ departure from the Legislative Yuan, the National Police Agency ordered forensic investigators from the Taipei City Police Department’s Forensic Science Center to collect fingerprints from the legislative chamber.

The agency also dispatched police officers from the Special Police Sixth Headquarters to surround and take over the legislature.

The move has raised speculations that the government might be planning to take legal action against the students.

Additional reporting by Chen Hsiao-yi

Hawks’ coalition to stay outside Legislative Yuan

STAYING PUT:The Free Taiwan Front said the activists in the occupied legislative chamber are aware of and respect its decision to remain on site

By Alison Hsiao  /  Staff reporter

The Free Taiwan Front yesterday announce their intention to stay outside the Legislative Yuan in Taipei and continue active monitoring of the review of the cross-strait service trade agreement.

Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times

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A coalition which calls itself the Free Taiwan Front (自由台灣陣線), consisting of mainly pro-independence youth and civil groups who represent a more hawkish perspective in the student movement, said they would be staying in front of the Legislative Yuan in Taipei to continue supervising the institutionalization of a cross-strait agreement oversight mechanism after the students leave the legislative chamber tomorrow.

Immediately following the Sunflower movement’s announcement on Monday evening that the occupation of the legislative chamber would end tomorrow, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) issued statements reiterating that the agenda for reviewing the cross-strait service trade agreement could not be hindered by the institutionalization of the oversight mechanism and that it is “impossible” to retract the pact.

“Their statements showed that the movement’s demands have not at all been met and were tantamount to a slap in the public’s face,” the Free Taiwan Front said yesterday. “Therefore, we will respond to the movement’s call to ‘turn defense into attack’ by staying outside the legislature’s front door to keep exerting pressure.”

The coalition said those in the occupied legislative chamber are aware of and respect its decision.

“Our core values are no different from those held by those inside [the legislature],” Free Taiwan Front convener Chen Tzu-yu (陳子瑜) said.

The coalition regards the cross-strait service trade agreement dispute as one that concerns not only commerce, trade and politics, but also “stems from empty articles in the Republic of China Constitution and the resulting distorted cross-strait relationship.”

“It is for this reason that [Taiwan] is not able to deal with the dispute as a normal country with clear legal regulations,” Chen said.

Chen called on the Ma administration to clarify what it meant by describing the cross-strait relationship as one that is not to be framed as “state-to-state.”

“Does this relationship, according to them, fall under the framework of the internationally recognized People’s Republic of China or that of the largely unrecognized Republic of China?” he asked.

Yoshi Liu (劉敬文), spokesman of the Radical Flank (基進側翼), one of the groups in the coalition, also demanded that Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) elucidate on his promise to “legislate first, negotiate next.”

It could either be a negotiation over the controversial 30-second passage of the trade pact on March 17 or over the validity of the resolution to have the pact returned to the Executive Yuan passed by the joint committee meeting presided over by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on March 24, Liu said.

If it was the former, there is a risk that the pact could be directly sent to the legislative floor for a simple show of hands after the negotiation, “an action that corresponds with Ma’s stance,” Liu added.

The coalition is also championing the recall of some Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers.

Award-winning author Neil Peng (馮光遠), who is a member of the Constitution 133 Alliance that launched a failed attempt to recall KMT Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) earlier this year, was present at the press conference, saying that the recall campaign is restarting and asking people to stay alert to lawmakers’ moves to raise the recall threshold.

Continuing to monitor the Control Yuan’s investigation into Jiang and the state’s use of violence and the government’s policy on the free economic pilot zones would also be part of the coalition’s plans, it said.

The coalition called on the public to join their “passerby” protest on Friday in front of the headquarters of CTi Television, the cable TV network owned by pro-unification Want Want China Times Group (旺旺中時集團) chairman Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明) and deemed by many protesters to be biased, and a subsequent march to the office of KMT Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元) in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖).