To maintain security in the legislative chamber, which has been occupied since March 18 to protest the government’s handling of the cross-strait service trade agreement, graduate student, Huang Yen-ju (黃燕茹) heads up the security patrols who guard the entrance ways.
Huang is in charge of the Sunflower movement’s security division, a team of 80 students working in shifts to monitor the flow of people and goods at the legislative chamber’s eight entry points.
Huang said the pressure is quite intense.
Photo: Tu Chu-min, Taipei Times
“Most of the time, I get only two or three hours of sleep a day. At one point, I did not have a shower or bath for eight days,” she said.
She is pursuing a master’s degree in social work at Fu Jen Catholic University in New Taipei City.
Despite the heavy toll, she said: “I just want everyone who is caught up in this fight to have peace and safety.”
She has been involved in a campaign against media monopolization, protests against the demolition of Huaguang Community (華光) in Taipei, an environmental group’s fight against a windmill project in Miaoli County’s Yuanli (苑裡) and also the Dapu Borough (大埔) land expropriation case.
In the anti-media monopoly campaign last year, Huang broke through the legislature’s exterior gate with a dozen student activists, and staged an impromptu protest sit-in as legislators inside were deliberating a draft anti-media monopoly law.
She and other students laid down on the hot asphalt and refused to leave.
They were eventually carried away by police.
Last month, in a protest against the controversial Shihlin District urban renewal project in Taipei, known as Wenlin Yuan (文林苑), Huang climbed barriers and stayed atop them for two hours in an effort to block demolitions.
“When I was an elementary-school student, I saw on television that people’s houses were torn down so the Taipei City Government could go ahead with the No. 14 and 15 Park projects,” she said. “I was shocked. How can the government just go in and demolish people’s houses? That question reverberated in my heart for a long time.”
Last year’s anti-media monopolization campaign started her active engagement in social movements.
“The Ministry of Education sent documents to schools, requesting that they ‘monitor’ students who were participating in the protest. That filled my heart with anger,” she said.
She was then introduced into the Youth Alliance Against Media Monsters by Sunflower movement leader Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆).
Last year, she traveled around the country with other social activists to conduct activities and speak at rally events to promote their fight against media monopolization.
Speaking on the occupation of the Legislative Yuan, Huang said: “On the first day when I came in, I knew my job was to guard the doors. This is a battle zone.”
Huang said that protesters have been through difficult situations, because after their storming of the legislature on the night of March 18, they had to fend off several police attempts to eject them.
Always being on alert and making checks on suspicious people trying to enter, Huang said the “security divison” she headed up had discovered several police officers trying to infiltrate the chamber and stopped them from getting inside.
A few times, some “provocateurs” tried to bring in dangerous devices, she added.
There were also conflicts, as some outsiders, reporters and other groups did not want to comply with the student protesters’ security checks, which at times came with a search of personal baggage.
Huang had to mediate the disputes.
“I have experienced many stressful situations. I do not think outsiders can fully understand what I went through,” she said.
While no one can predict how the occupation of the legislative chamber will end, Huang said that after assessing her efforts against media monopolization, Huaguang community expropriation and other cases, she is optimistic about the future.
“Though we lost some wars, we won a few battles, ” she said. “The final outcome of a social movement may not be the most important thing. Participation is more important. Through these activist movements, we present these social issues to the public.”
“Our efforts have prompted more people to join social movements. So now more people are taking an active interest in various social issues,” she said. “When more people watch over and scrutinize the government, Taiwan can only get better, and we can become a more democratic society.”
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai