Executive Yuan spokesperson Sun Lih-chyun (孫立群), responding to student protests against adjustments to the high-school curriculum guidelines, said yesterday that the government would re-examine the sections that have sparked disputes, while the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus continued to accuse the opposition parties of using the students for political ends.
The Executive Yuan, after days of silence on the storming of the Ministry of Education building by students on Thursday last week, reiterated that the controversial issues in the curriculum guidelines would not be part of standardized exams, saying that the students’ rights to education is the government’s uppermost concern.
Sun said that the government would examine the contentious portions of the adjusted guidelines and that Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) had told the Ministry of Education to “handle [the case] appropriately” immediately after the students’ action on Thursday night, asking it to “continue communications” with students.
Separately yesterday, the KMT legislative caucus held a second press conference on the storming of the ministry building — it held the first on Saturday to announce its support for the ministry taking legal action against “those who violated the law” — at which it accused the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan Solidarity Union of exploiting the students’ “naivety and passion.”
KMT Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) said that the adjustments had been made to “return the curriculum guidelines, which have been distorted by the historical perspectives of Japanese colonial rule and Taiwan independence advocates, back to one that is in accordance with the Republic of China.”
He also criticized DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) joint statement with DPP mayors and county commissioners that called on the ministry to drop its lawsuit against the students, saying that it would a blatant violation of the rule of law.
“She should take Shih Ming-te (施明德) as an example, who said he could have stormed into the Presidential Office Building [during the 2006 ‘red shirts’ movement against former President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁)] but he didn’t, since if he did Taiwan’s democracy and the rule of law would have come to an end,” Lai said.
KMT Legislator Alicia Wang (王育敏) showed a photograph of a receipt for NT$1,495 the DPP spent on umbrellas, saying that it shows that the DPP has been providing “all of the resources needed by the protesting students.”
The legislator also referred to a photograph showing “a student physically tackling a security guard using professional moves” and said it attested to the fact that the students “had been professionally trained.”
KMT Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元) said if teachers are unwilling to educate the students, judges could take over the job.
He also demanded that Tsai Ing-wen “shut up,” adding: “Is Tsai Ing-wen only going to stop when she has successfully trained the students to become Islamic State [fighters]?”
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