The Sunflower movement of 2014 was an “illegal and non-peaceful” protest that does not qualify as civil disobedience, former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday.
Speaking at a corporate awards ceremony organized by the Chinese-language Cheers magazine, Ma said that having been involved in the Baodiao movement (保釣) during his college days, he believed that student movements should be peaceful and should not break the law.
Baodiao refers to a movement to defend the disputed Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台).
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Illegal or non-peaceful gatherings are not a form of civil disobedience and involve “moral hazards” that lead to people resisting anything they dislike, Ma said.
Quoting a 19th-century US writer who advocated civil disobedience, Ma said people must accept the consequences of their disobedience.
Ma was likely referring to US poet and writer Henry David Thoreau.
The author of Civil Disobedience said that unjust laws should not be followed and refused to pay taxes in protest of slavery and the Mexican American War, for which he was briefly imprisoned.
The former president made the remarks one day after Sunflower movement leader Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷) rejected comparisons between the student-led movement in 2014 with the pension reform protesters outside the legislature on Wednesday, when some demonstrators attacked lawmakers and government officials.
Chen said that unlike the pension reform protest, the Sunflower movement was a peaceful demonstration against a controversial cross-strait service trade agreement.
A total of 22 Sunflower participants who were indicted for breaking into the legislature compound in March 2014 were acquitted by a district court on March 31, which said they were engaged in “civil disobedience.”
Addressing the issue of youth employment, Ma said that Taiwan continues to lack skilled workers in spite of the high rate of university enrolment.
The deficiency can be addressed by importing skilled workers from China or other countries, he said.
“An open economy will bring prosperity, while a closed one will wither,” Ma said.
During the Sunflower movement, the Wall Street Journal Asia published an editorial entitled “Taiwan leaves itself behind,” he said.
He quoted the editorial as saying that with an economy dependent on the service industry, Taiwan has suffered significant negative effects from refusing to sign the cross-strait service trade agreement.
Ma said he hoped young Taiwanese would understand the difficulties and opportunities for the nation’s development and would choose to go on the path of economic openness, not protectionism.
Additional reporting by CNA
UPGRADE: The Kang Ding-class frigate is replacing its Chaparall missiles with Tien Chien II and Hua Yang VLS, which would provide it with long-range, 360° air defense Taiwan plans to produce 1,200 to 1,376 Hai Chien II missiles (海劍二, Sea Sword II) — also known as TC-2N — to serve as the standard air defense system of the navy’s surface combatant fleet, a source said yesterday. Last week, the Hai Chien II, the naval version of the Tien Kung II missile (天劍二, Sky Sword II), completed a live-fire test in waters off the National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology’s Jiupeng facility (九鵬) in Pingtung County’s Manjhou Township (滿州). The MIM72 Chaparral and other dated air defense missiles that currently arm Taiwanese ships have inadequate range to combat Chinese
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
RSS