New Power Party (NPP) legislative candidates yesterday appeared outside the Ministry of Education (MOE) building to show their support for the students protesting against the ministry’s curriculum guideline changes, and vowed to take legal action against Minister of Education Wu Se-hwa (吳思華) and police officers over the death of a young activist.
The anti-curriculum guideline change protest intensified after student protester Dai Lin (林冠華) was found dead on Thursday in what is believed to have been a suicide.
The protesters yesterday at about 1:33am began breaking down police barricades and scaling the walls to enter the courtyard of the ministry offices and staged a sit-in there.
NPP legislative candidates, including Neil Peng (馮光遠), Freddy Lim (林昶佐), Ko Shao-chen (柯劭臻) and Hung Tzu-yung (洪慈庸), yesterday appeared outside the ministry building to show their support.
“I would like to say that I condemn the minister for causing the horrible political suicide through disclosing confidential information,” said Ko, who is also an attorney.
“We will file lawsuits against Wu, Zhongzheng First Police Precinct Police Chief Chang Chi-wen (張奇文) and police officers who made the arrests of student activists who stormed the ministry building on July 23 for leaking confidential information,” Ko told the crowd.
Ko said Lin would probably not have killed himself if the ministry and the police did not tell his school to visit his family, putting more pressure on him.
“The NPP’s lawyers will continue to pursue the responsibility of the judiciary and the ministry,” Ko said.
NPP Hsinchu City candidate Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智), who is also a lawyer, has been at the protest scene since early yesterday morning to provide legal assistance to the protesters.
The NPP also issued a statement, calling on the ministry to halt its implementation of the new curriculum guidelines, while urging the ministry to make a law on revising the curriculum that includes a mechanism to allow the participation of students and teachers in the process.
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