wfn.org | Taiwan Church News Editorial: Organic Wild Strawberries Refuse To Be Crushed

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>Taiwan Church News

>2960 Edition

>November 17~23, 2008

Editorial: Organic Wild Strawberries Refuse To Be Crushed

The steady unraveling of Taiwan’s sovereignty and human rights were  in full view when ARATS chairman Chen Yunlin came to Taiwan in the  beginning of November to sign a Three Links agreement. At the time,  peaceful and lawful demonstrations against Chen by the Taiwanese people  were met with police brutality as though demonstrations were prohibited.  Police even threatened and pushed onlookers, people who happened to pass  the area, and people out to get a few camera shots. These people were  not demonstrators but actions taken by the police have some  international media buzzing about the return of the police state or  martial law in Taiwan.

When the government does not protect freedom of speech, treats citizens  as criminals, misuses executive powers, tramples human rights, it  becomes obvious that what we are facing now is beyond political party  competition and rivalry. Those incidents were evidences of a government  using police force to crush people’s autonomy. The government was  treating the people as enemies of the state.

When university students and professors began city-wide protests against  President Ma Ying-jeou’s meeting with Chen Yunlin and later staged  sit-in protests on the doorsteps of the legislature to protest against  police brutality, they did not have a concrete plan on how their  demonstrations would proceed. They simply wanted the government to  respond to three demands, namely, an apology from President Ma and  Premier Liu, resignation of National Police Agency and National Security  Bureau chiefs Tsai Chao- ming and Wang Cho-chiun, and reform of the  Assembly and Parade Law. The students did not get any reply from the  government on the first day of the sit-in, so, they decided to continue  protesting. On the morning of October 7, Cabinet Secretary-General Hsueh  Hsiang-chuan came out to “communicate” with the student  protesters and was rebutted. At five o’clock in the afternoon, the  police began to remove the students from the area by force. After they  were driven out by the police, the students gathered in front of Liberty  Square as previously agreed and began another round of sit-in. No one  predicted that the sit-in would spread to other cities including Tainan,  Taichung, Kaohsiung, Hsinchu, and Chiayi, and continue on even as we  speak.

The students christened their sit-in “Wild Strawberry  Movement” in reference to a song and also to counter the popular  claim that this generation’s youth (also known as the strawberry  generation) cannot cope with pressure. In reality, these students showed  a great deal of determination, originality, cool-headedness, and sense  of justice throughout the sit-in protests, thus revealing to the world  that they are “organic wild strawberries” that cannot be  crushed.

Christian youths were also present in the sit-in protests. A few  seminarians from Tainan Theological College and Seminary joined sit-in  protesters in Taipei on November 6, right after attending a protest  rally with the Presbyterian Church of Taiwan. They also took part in  sit-ins staged in Tainan.

Some media reports claim that the student movement is being used by the  pan-green camp and its essence is wrong-headed. In reality, some victims  of the Assembly and Parade Law who suffered injustices under the  previous DPP government, as well as KMT supporters who treasure freedom  and human rights, have come forward to support it. This goes on to prove  that the sit-ins have crossed party lines. Those who participate in them  are youths and citizens who can think independently and critically.  These people did not have a specific plan or schedule of events planned  out on the outset, which explains why the nation-wide sit-ins took off  slowly. However, because these people have strong convictions, they will  not be easily swayed, exploited or divided.

The Wild Strawberry Student Movement ignited hope among the Taiwanese  during a time when basic human rights were being trampled in Taiwan.  Through the support and participation of many, it is possible for this  movement to become a social force reaching across party lines because  the basic common denominator is human rights. Using democracy as banner,  perhaps this sit-in can spark a movement protecting Taiwan’s  democracy.

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