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DPP wraps up sit-in demonstration

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen, fourth left, and former premier Frank Hsieh, left, do stretching exercises with supporters during a sit-in protest on Ketagalan Boulevard yesterday morning in front of the Presidential Office. PHOTO: NICKY LOH, REUTERS

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) concluded its 24-hour sit-in protest on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office last night with a prayer for Taiwan’s future.

The prayer was led by Reverend William Luo (羅榮光) and followed DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) concluding speech.

Tsai called for cross-strait issues to be decided by the people and insisted that a referendum should be held on the signing of an economic cooperation framework agreement with China.

“We need the power of the people from the grassroots upward to fuel a social revolution,” Tsai told the crowd, many of who were calling for the sit-in to be extended to tomorrow, the first anniversary of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) inauguration.

Some protesters said they were going to move the sit-in to in front of the Legislative Yuan, but most of the crowd headed for home.

The sit-in began at 10pm on Sunday at the end of the DPP’s rally against Ma’s China policies, which attracted tens of thousands of people.

The sit-in focused on the government’s proposed amendments to the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), which the DPP says would expand police power and restrict the right of assembly. The DPP says the proposed amendments are a sign that Taiwan is returning to the authoritarian period.

Tsai, former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) and the DPP’s 27 legislators spent the night on Ketagalan Boulevard. The DPP said more than 1,000 people stayed overnight.

However, Lu and Su both left early yesterday, with Su saying he wanted to go home to freshen up.

Several anonymous donors and DPP Taipei City councilors supplied meat buns, rice dumplings, watermelon, fried noodles, sticky rice and other food, as well as tea and water, for the protesters yesterday. On Sunday night, former Taiwan Solidarity Union lawmaker Liao Pen-yen (廖本煙) had donated more than 1,000 lunch boxes.

Meanwhile, a masked man who was escorted out of the area by the police on Sunday for trying to provoke the protestors reportedly returned to the sit-in area yesterday afternoon, wearing a Republic of China flag. He was eventually escorted away by protestors and police. TV reports said he was carrying a metal rod in his backpack.

The protesters’ numbers swelled yesterday evening as people joined the sit-in after work, the DPP said.

Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said yesterday the government attached great importance to the demonstrators’ views.

Wang quoted Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) as saying protesters’ requests to help the disadvantaged and the jobless were what the government has been doing. Although the government could not control the global financial crisis, it could help reduce the impact, Wang said.

Regarding their demand to revise the Assembly and Parade Act, Wang said Ma hoped to see the amendments clear the legislature as soon as possible. The government would work to protect the freedom of protesters and refrain from imposing restrictions on them unless they obstruct traffic or disrupt social order, Wang said.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY KO SHU-LING
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