A group of Hong Kongers living in Taiwan, known as the Hong Kong Outlanders, along with a dozen local civic groups, yesterday staged a demonstration in front of the Hong Kong Economic, Trade and Cultural Office in Taipei to raise awareness about the pro-democracy protests in the territory.
The coalition of groups also urged the Taiwanese public to cherish their hard-won freedom by voting wisely in January’s presidential and legislative elections.
Among the local civic groups were the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, the New School For Democracy and the Taiwan Association of University Professors.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Hong Kongers’ suspension of school, work and the stock exchange was meant to urge the territory’s government to respond to the protesters’ five demands, but the government responded by cracking down on the campus of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, sparking greater furor, a spokesman for Hong Kong Outlanders surnamed Kwan (關) said.
A government that has no regard for public opinion and only engages in fake dialogues with its people has said in a statement that it would quell violence to stop disorder without realizing that it is the source of violence, Kwan said, adding that Hong Kong Outlanders strongly condemns the Hong Kong government and demands that Hong Kongers be given the right to vote for their chief executive and lawmakers in a universal suffrage.
The Hong Kong government has abused its administrative, legislative and judicial powers by infring on its people’s rights, Taiwan Association for Human Rights secretary-general Chiu Ee-ling (邱伊翎) said.
Hong Kong police have shown the lengths they would go through to demonstrate their power, she said, adding that the situation has deteriorated to an extent that protesters cannot seek a legal remedy for the violence perpetrated against them.
As election day approaches, Taiwanese must have a good look at the candidates who are still pandering to the Chinese government or have remained silent in the face of the Chinese government’s violation of human rights, its unchecked surveillance of dissidents and its heavy-handed crackdowns.
They must take these into consideration before casting their vote, she said.
A society is in an extremely precarious state if state violence has extended to campuses, National Taiwan University Students’ Association head Tu Chun-ching (涂峻清) said.
Under these circumstances, Taiwanese universities must shoulder the responsibility of accepting Hong Kong university students to set liberal Taiwan apart from totalitarian China in the Chinese-speaking community and show prospective students worldwide that Taiwan is their best destination to study the language.
In related news, the democracy movement in Hong Kong has been ranked as the most closely watched human rights issue in Taiwan this year, a survey released yesterday by the Taipei-based Chinese Association of Human Rights (CAHR) showed.
The situation in Hong Kong has given the Taiwanese government something to think about — that governance should always be about serving the people, association head Lin Tien-tsai (林天財) said.
Citing the pro-democracy movement there as an example, Lin said all governments should learn to grasp public opinion and promote policies that truly address the welfare of the people.
The government is good at chanting slogans and touting Taiwan’s interests, but it has failed to come up with policies that protects the rights and interests of its people when there is a shift in cross-strait relations, Lin said.
The survey, conducted online from Oct. 18 to Oct. 31 via the CAHR Web site, received valid samples from 20,844 people.
The Hong Kong issue obtained 63.87 percent of the vote, followed by the issue of air pollution as a human rights threat in a report published earlier this year by the UN special rapporteur on human rights and the environment (56.42 percent).
The third-most-important development was the individual income tax cut promoted by the government this year (51.19 percent).
Additional reporting by CNA
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