Retired soldiers yesterday marked Armed Forces Day with nationwide protests against the government’s pension reform, as they commemorated soldiers who sacrificed their lives.
In Taipei, protesters congregated in the Taipei Main Station atrium.
Led by retired army general Wu Sz-huai (吳斯懷), they came from veterans associations of different military branches and were joined by former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), as well as officers from the KMT’s special Huang Fu-hsing branch, whose members are military veterans or their family members.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The protesters began by singing the Republic of China (ROC) national anthem and some pricked their finger with a needle to dab blood on an ROC flag as a gesture of determination in their fight against pension reform.
“[President] Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is trying to dismantle the ROC by methodically cutting off links to Chinese history,” Hung said. “She uses education to teach young people deceitful concepts and permits her government officials to insult pensioners who have retired from the civil service, military, police, fire department, or from education.”
“Over 200,000 protesters took to the streets on Sept. 3 last year, but the government did not respond to our demands throughout the year,” she said. “The DPP government kept on using the pension reform issue to villify pensioners and also wielded their majority in the Legislature to push through the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program budget of hundreds of millions of dollars. Therefore I urge people to come out to fight against this unfair and unjust government.”
Wu said no political party should destroy a pension system already in place, adding: “It also must not be done retroactively, because that violates the trust and the promises made by the government.”
Soldiers had given their youth and service years to the country, and time could not be turned back, Wu said, adding that the government must talk with the veterans’ groups to negotiate about pension reform and should not make decisions unilaterally.
Members of veterans’ groups held similar protests elsewhere yesterday.
In Hualien County, protesters gathered for a rally at the plaza in front of Hualien City Railway Station.
Hualien County Commissioner Fu Kun-chi (傅崐萁) and his wife, KMT Legislator Hsu Chen-wei (徐榛蔚), joined an estimated 300 retired civil servants, teachers, police and veterans for an anti-pension reform rally.
Fu raised eyebrows when he challenged Tsai: “Do not be evasive. If you have the guts, then go declare Taiwan independence.”
Fu’s remark sparked negative reactions from many netizens.
One wrote: “If you have the guts, then you should declare Hualien County independence.”
Another wrote: “Fu, if you have guts, go declare that you want unification with China” and asked: “How does Taiwan independence have anything to do with the greedy civil servants, veterans and teachers who would not give up their generous pensions?”
Additional reporting by Wang Chin-yi
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