On Nov. 23, farmers joined more than 100,000 protesters marching on streets near the Presidential Office in Taipei in the nation's biggest demonstration ever.
The farmers expressed their profound dissatisfaction not with the credit unit problem that had triggered the protest, but the sliding prices of agricultural products, the desolation of rural villages and lack of government care.
Were it not for farmers' mounting discontent with the rural economy, the leaders of farmers' associations might find it impossible to use the credit units issue to mobilize such a large number of farmers.
Some compared the Nov. 23 protest with another farmers' demonstration which happened on May 20, 1988. They stressed that last month's protest was peaceful and rational while the earlier one was violent.
Still, the similarities between the two events deserve more attention. Although the farmer movements in the late 1980s were waged under the banner of establishing autonomous farmers' organizations, numerous farmers echoed that platform mainly because Taiwan was undergoing the first round of economic liberalization.
This time, farmers took to the streets because globalization and Taiwan's WTO entry have liberalized the agricultural market on a larger scale, which has similarly traumatized the rural economy.
Since the 1990s, a majority of Taiwanese labor-intensive industries have relocated overseas. Labor protests over the past few years apparently are a result of the high unemployment rate which has been caused by the globalization trend and the industrial migration to China.
More than a decade ago, what moved out of Taiwan were less important factories. This time, however, the migration of businesses to China includes the high-tech industry and professional individuals equipped with modern international economic and trade knowledge.
A friend of mine who studies social sciences put forth an interesting question -- is it possible that those who benefit from this wave of globalization and China-bound investment and therefore establish closer economic relations with China will switch toward advocating "peaceful unification" as a resolution to the Taiwan problem? On the other hand, will farmers, workers and other disadvantaged groups who become underdogs amid the transformation harbor animosity against China and therefore support independence?
The farmer, labor and social protests have shown that neither politicians in the ruling and opposition parties nor grassroots workers have any consistent, logical answers to the relationship between the economic interests of various groups and the direction of national development.
The opposition parties advocate the "go west" migration, but then they support labor and farmers' movements. The DPP, while lambasting the groups for colluding with China, is speeding up Taiwan's globalization. But when globalization impairs the rights and interests of minorities, the government cannot compensate for their losses. Therefore, in order to consolidate voter bases in disadvantaged groups, the government finally had to slow down the financial reform needed for globalization. Its hands are tied and will continue to be until they can resolve this conflict.
A democratic political party cannot thoughtlessly jump to take sides with any potentially supportive constituency while forgetting that their party platforms conflict with the group's interests. Nor can they neglect the use of policies to make up for and protect the groups whose interests are harmed.
Such a method would leave the government in embarrassing circumstances where it has to put out fires with policy U-turns for the sake of votes.
Ku Er-teh is a freelance writer.
Translated by Jackie Lin
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