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Cabinet proposes altering Assembly and Parade Law

The government yesterday answered a long-standing call by activists to scrap police powers to grant or deny protest permits, but offered the police instead new powers to bar or alter demonstration plans in certain cases.

The proposal to amend the Assembly and Parade Law (集會遊行法) approved at the weekly Cabinet meeting was described in a statement as “a big step forward in the nation’s development of democracy and the rule of law.”

Public criticism of the police response to protests against Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin’s (陳雲林) visit put the controversial law back in the spotlight last month.

The Cabinet’s proposal would scrap the requirement that rally and parade organizers obtain permission from police beforehand. Instead, organizers would only be required to register their activities in advance.

The revision would meet one of the demands of the Wild Strawberry Student Movement, which has staged sit-in protests against the law since Nov. 6.

However, it did not come without conditions. The government proposed three circumstances in which police could inform organizers within 36 hours of registration that their plans were not acceptable or must be altered.

Draft Article 11 would grant police that power when a protest would jeopardize national security, social order or the public interest; if it would endanger lives, freedom or property; or when an event taking place close to another could cause problems.

Vice Minister of the Interior Chien Tai-lang (簡太郎) denied the proposal was no more than the same police powers in a new guise.

“Less than 0.0035 percent of applications for protests are rejected under the current permit system. I promise you that the percentage would only go down. The opportunities for police to use such measures are rare,” he said by telephone.

Chien told a press conference after the meeting that the change would ensure trouble-free rallies.

“The registration system would not mean police could not intervene at protests,” Chien said.

Police would be empowered to remove people from areas deemed off-limits and demand that rally organizers end an event if it turns violent or blocks traffic.

In line with calls by activists, the government also proposed lifting the restriction on protests near the Presidential Office, buildings of the five branches of government, international airports, harbors, major military bases, consulates and the residences of representatives of foreign countries.

But the amendment would empower police to ensure protests were held at a “safe distance.”

It would also scrap the ban on expressing support for communism or the division of the nation’s territory. In addition, the potential jail sentence of up to two years for violators of the assembly law would be replaced with fines.

In response, Liu Hui-chun (劉惠純), a representative of the student protesters, said the group welcomed the Cabinet’s proposal, but that the students would not immediately end their sit-in.

Liu said the students had spent the past few days discussing the movement’s next step but would put off a decision until after a planned rally on Sunday.

Additional reporting by Flora Wang
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