Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) yesterday visited members of the Wild Strawberry Student Movement staging a protest at Liberty Square and promised to help them in their campaign to have the Assembly and Parade Law (集會遊行法) amended.
Lee urged Taiwan Solidarity Union Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝), who accompanied him, to back the students as well and offered words of encouragement ahead of a rally scheduled for this afternoon. Lee said he hoped the students would not get sick from sitting outside in the cold weather.
The Wild Strawberries have run a weeks-long campaign calling for legislators to scrap regulations in the assembly law that require organizers of protests to seek a permit from police for any events. The protesters also demand that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) apologize and that National Police Agency (NPA) Director-General Wang Cho-chiun (王卓鈞) and National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Chao-ming (蔡朝明) resign from their posts over what the students have called police brutality against protesters during a visit by a Chinese delegation last month.
PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
Lee yesterday said he understood the students’ dissatisfaction with the law and agreed the regulations should be changed.
He said democracy and freedom were the nation’s most prized possessions and that the true meaning of democracy was that sovereignty rests with the public. The government should not require police permits to demonstrate, Lee said, and police should only intervene if a demonstration turns violent.
Asked about Ma’s comment earlier this week that a visit by the Dalai Lama would not be appropriate, Lee said there was no acceptable reason for the government’s opposition to a visit.
The public is under economic stress, forcing it to focus on money matters, Lee said.
“What is needed in this situation is religious comfort and there should be no talk of this not being an appropriate time [for a visit by the Dalai Lama],” he said.
In related news, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said yesterday he would leave for the US today on behalf of the National Security Council (NSC) to address Washington’s concerns about eroding judicial impartiality.
Hsieh said the NSC felt it was necessary to explain the matter to friends in the US as they, including Ma’s mentor during his studies at Harvard University, professor Jerome Cohen, had gotten the wrong impression about the situation in Taiwan after a visit by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮).
Chai visited the US last month and expressed concern that the government was influencing prosecutors in cases against DPP figures.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHIH HSIU-CHUAN
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