National Chengchi University (NCCU) Student Affairs Office deputy director Tsai Yen-lung (蔡炎龍) yesterday apologized after more than 100 students protested the school administration’s forced removal of fliers on 228 Incident victims last week.
Holding up placards accusing the school administration of “imposing martial law” and urging it to apologize, hundreds of NCCU students joined members of the student organization NCCU Wild Fire Front in a protest against the forced removal of fliers about 228 Incident victims at several locations on Friday last week, ahead of the 69th anniversary of the Incident on Sunday.
Although there are bulletin boards for student organizations in the Wind and Rain Corridor where they were posting fliers, the fliers were removed by on campus security and police, triggering fierce verbal exchanges between officers and students.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“What we did was only to raise our classmates’ awareness on issues related to the Incident, reminding them that the authoritarian nature of the party-state still exists,” Wild Fire Front president Yang Tzu-hsien (楊子賢) told the crowd gathered in front of a library on campus. “We did not expect such a fierce reaction from the school administration, which shows that they do not care about human rights, freedom or transitional justice.”
The group then demanded that the school apologize, remove all statues of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) from campus and that all security officers stay off campus.
Several NCCU professors, including Graduate Institute of Taiwan History chairperson Li Cu-chung (李福鐘) and Department of Land Economics professor Hsu Shih-jung (徐世榮), as well as Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Frida Tsai (蔡培慧), attended the protest in support of the students.
Tsai Yen-lung apologized to students, saying that the conflict happened because security officers misunderstood the regulations for posting fliers and posters and overreacted.
Despite the apology, Tsai Yen-lung upset students by saying that his remarks do not represent the school administration, leading students to call for a dialogue with higher-ranking and more representative school officials.
Meanwhile, NCCU chief secretary Wang Wen-chieh (王文杰) told the Central News Agency in a telephone interview that since the Wind and Rain Corridor falls under the jurisdiction of the Student Affairs Office, “the deputy director represents the school administration.”
Wang added that the officer who took down the fliers felt guilty for his actions.
Additional reporting by CNA
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