Saying that the Assembly and Parade Law (集會遊行法) restricts people more than it protects them, several civic groups demonstrated outside the Legislative Yuan yesterday, demanding that the law be abolished.
“Assembly and parade are ways through which we the people express our voice,” said Wang Ping (王蘋), secretary-general of the Gender/Sexuality Rights Association Taiwan.
“The law, designed to protect our right to hold demonstrations, only tells us that we can’t do this or we can’t do that — how is that a protection?” she asked.
PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
A demonstration organizer must submit an application for an assembly and parade permit to the local police authority six working days before a demonstration. The organizer must file a separate application for the right to use public spaces in advance and pay a NT$30,000 (US$900) deposit.
However, even if everything is filed in time and conforms to the law, it does not mean that permission would be granted.
The annual gay pride parade in Taipei — held on Sept. 27 — was forced to change its route this year because “no rally or parade can be held in the Boai District [博愛特區] as the national day celebrations were in preparation,” Wang said.
The Boai District is where many central government offices, such as the Presidential Office, are located.
The National Teachers’ Association’s (NTA) application to hold a demonstration in front of the Ministry of Education on Sept. 28 was turned down for the same reason.
“Be they politicians in the green camp or the blue camp, this law is their favorite tool,” NTA spokesman Lo Te-shui (羅德水) said. “The more political a rally is, the easier the permission would be granted. It’s always very difficult for other grassroots campaigners to obtain rally permission.”
“Before he was elected to the presidency, President Ma Ying-jeou [馬英九] and the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] voiced their support for amending the law, but now that they’re in control of both the government and the legislature, what has happened to the promise?” Lo asked.
While some of the protesters, such as Green Party Taiwan secretary-general Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲), said they could accept a revised version of the law if the new version actually offers protection of rather than restrictions on the right to assemble and protest, most others insisted that the law should be abolished.
“I don’t want the law to be amended, because however it’s revised, it will still be [the government’s] law — I want it to be abolished,” said Fred Chiu (丘延亮), an associate research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Ethnology.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a "tsunami watch" alert after a magnitude 8.7 earthquake struck off the Kamchatka Peninsula in northeastern Russia earlier in the morning. The quake struck off the east coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula at 7:25am (Taiwan time) at a depth of about 19km, the CWA said, citing figures from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The CWA's Seismological Center said preliminary assessments indicate that a tsunami could reach Taiwan's coastal areas by 1:18pm today. The CWA urged residents along the coast to stay alert and take necessary precautions as waves as high as 1m could hit the southeastern
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
Instead of threatening tariffs on Taiwan-made chips, the US should try to reinforce cooperation with Taiwan on semiconductor development to take on challenges from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), a Taiwanese think tank said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose across-the-board import duties of 32 percent on Taiwan-made goods and levy a separate tariff on semiconductors, which Taiwan is hoping to avoid. The Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology (DSET), a National Science and Technology Council think tank, said that US efforts should focus on containing China’s semiconductor rise rather than impairing Taiwan. “Without
The National Museum of Taiwan Literature is next month to hold an exhibition in Osaka, Japan, showcasing the rich and unique history of Taiwanese folklore and literature. The exhibition, which is to run from Aug. 10 to Aug. 20 at the city’s Central Public Hall, is part of the “We Taiwan” at Expo 2025 series, highlighting Taiwan’s cultural ties with the international community, National Museum of Taiwan Literature director Chen Ying-fang (陳瑩芳) said. Folklore and literature, among Taiwan’s richest cultural heritages, naturally deserve a central place in the global dialogue, Chen said. Taiwan’s folklore would be immediately apparent at the entrance of the
RSS