Former students of Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) — who was a political science professor at National Taiwan University (NTU) before entering the government in 2008 — demonstrated outside the Executive Yuan yesterday, urging him to resign over involvement in the political battle between Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
Holding signs that read: “We are ready for an Executive Yuan without Jiang” and “first-class professor, but third-class politician,” the premier’s former students called on him to step down and return to the university.
“Jiang was very popular among students, and he was close with us too, so we would usually call him by his nickname ‘Little Jiang’ [小江],” Wang Wei-chung (王威中), a former student of Jiang who graduated from NTU in 2006 with a bachelor’s degree in political science, told the media.
“All students — regardless of our political preference — were happy when he was nominated to serve in the government, but we are disappointed to see how he sides with the president now in the political struggle against Wang, helping the head of the executive branch bully the head of the legislative branch of the government,” Wang said.
He urged Jiang to resign as premier, and return to the university to teach.
Chiang Chao-kuo (江肇國), who attended National Chengchi University (NCCU) 10 years ago, said that although he was not an NTU student, he would travel all the way to NTU just to sit in on Jiang’s class every week.
“I could not have imagined that 10 years later, I would be traveling from Greater Taichung to protest against the former professor whom I respected so much,” he said.
Chiang went on to say that Jiang often said in class that it takes cruelty for a politician to become successful, and thus he could not have become a successful politician because he did not have that character trait.
“Today, I would like to tell Jiang that the people will renounce you if cruelty is the only characeristic you have,” he said.
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