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Nothing for that on April 6, 2004 ……

Students in league with pan-blue alliance: DPP

CONNECTED: Although they are seemingly independent, some of the students taking part in the protest have ties to the KMT and PFP, the DPP said.

By Chang Yun-ping, STAFF REPORTER

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday accused the students staging a "hunger strike" at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall of being in allegiance with the pan-blue alliance.

According to the DPP, some of the students played active roles in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-People First Party (PFP) alliance's election campaign.

Fifteen students started the hunger strike on Friday to call on political leaders across party lines to apologize for what the students call the social disorder of the past four years and to establish a "truth task force" to investigate the attempted assassination of President Chen Shui-bian and Vice President Annette Lu. They also accuse Chen of manipulating the media and abandoning administrative neutrality.

The deputy director of the DPP's Information and Culture Department, Cheng Wen-tsan, yesterday said that some of the students participating in the hunger strike had ties to the pan-blue alliance.

Cheng said that one student, Chen Hsin-ju, was the vice convener of the pan-blue campaign office's information department, and also served as a student representative to the PFP's national congress. Another student, Chen Cheng-feng, was supported by the KMT in his unsuccessful attempt to be elected president of National Taiwan University's student union.

At a media conference yesterday, the DPP displayed photographs of the students posing with KMT Chairman Lien Chan and PFP Chairman James Soong.

The DPP said the hunger strikers' Web site, http://dyu.hopto.org, was connected to the home page of a pan-blue youth organization. The e-mail address on the students' Web site is pfpe2k@yahoo.com.tw. According to the DPP, "pfp" refers to the political party, while "e2k" is the name of youth summer camp held regularly by the PFP.

The students are calling their protest the reappearance of the Formosa Lily Movement, a pro-democracy group formed by university students in the early 1990s against the then-ruling KMT to call for the abolishment of the National Assembly and to promote the termination of the Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion. The movement disbanded peacefully after delivering a petition to former president Lee Teng-hui in the Presidential Office.

Cheng, a graduate of National Taiwan University and a member of the original Formosa Lily Movement, said the hunger strikers' appeal to "the spirits of the Formosa Lily" was unnecessary.

"Back then, those students joining in the protests were not affiliated with any political party. No political party supported our event, not even the DPP. The students took the initiative to push for more democratic reforms in that conservative time of the KMT's authoritarian rule. But now these students have neglected the spirit of being a `student initiative.' We are aware of the political influence behind them," Cheng said.

There is nothing wrong with speaking out and fighting for one's political passions, Cheng said, but there was no need for the hunger strikers to say they are non-partisan when they are not.

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College students take part in the ``relay hunger strike'' at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial yesterday.

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On April 6, 2004 ……

Pointless protests drag on

By S.A. Matsuyama, Sao Paulo, Brazil

I have been watching the endless protests since the election on March 20. The pan-blues are demanding a recount, a new election, a state of emergency, a special task force to investigate the election-eve assassination attempt and so on.

It is hard to say what the protests are about because the protesters keep changing their demands all the time, leaving us confused about what they really want. From my point of view, President Chen Shui-bian has given reasonable explanations for all the doubts the pan-blues have raised, but they keep coming up with something new to keep the protests going.

I listened to the press conference that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan and People First Party Chairman James Soong gave to the international media. After that, I checked on what the international press was saying about the pan-blues' allegations.

I read that there were no reasonable facts to support what Lien and Soong have been saying -- they only kept saying the election was unfair, that the election was rigged and that the assassination was staged. When asked if they had any particular evidence to support the allegations, they could not give a satisfactory answer.

So, what do the pan-blues really want? They have been rejecting any proposal that tries to resolve the problem peacefully. It is evident that they want to keep these endless protests going until Lien and Soong are declared unconditionally the winners. Otherwise, they are going to harass our lives forever.

But the question is, are Taiwanese that blind? Are people really so easily cheated with these allegations?

Maybe the protests will have some effect in the beginning, but for a long-term battle, unless you come up with something real, the pan-blues will certainly have to pay big for what they are doing.

I hope that Lien and Soong and their lawmakers will stop using their supporters as a weapon and keep the battle between politicians and the courts. Please let us live our lives in peace again!

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