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EDITORIAL: Students have been quick to learn
Minister of Culture Lung Ying-tai (龍應台) has criticized the Sunflower movement, saying that while students score 100 percent for their activism, the thinking behind their action is weak.
Student leader Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) responded by saying that after Lung became a part of the establishment, she betrayed the anti-authoritarian spirit displayed in her first book, Wild Fire (野火集).
“Weak thinking” does not sound nice. However, that is what being a student is all about. Students are learning, their thinking is developing; they are not adults with fully developed ideas. They are not omniscient, their ideas are pure and innocent, black or white, passionate and energetic. They make mistakes, but they learn from them and adjust their ideas and behavior.
When the students stormed the legislature, their ideas may not have been fully formed and they may not have been absolutely clear on what the cross-strait service trade agreement actually entailed.
However, they could no longer watch the opaque operations of the government or the way Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chang Ching-chung (張慶忠) ignored procedural justice and any trust between the ruling and opposition parties when, 30 seconds into a review meeting, he announced that the review was completed and that the agreement would be submitted to the legislature.
Every day during the occupation, which has continued for over two weeks now, academics and experts have given lectures. There have been debates and exchanges on how the agreement would affect Taiwanese industry and society, on the political significance for cross-strait relations and on global politico-economic strategy. Today, these students have perhaps debated the agreement in more depth than anyone else and they are perhaps the most well informed when it comes to the pact
In short, they are much stronger than President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who only keeps repeating that “the cross-strait agreement offers more pros than cons.”
The legislative occupation is an unexpected life lesson for the students. They are learning how to oppose the establishment, take responsibility and live with the consequences — they have learned that the storming of the Executive Yuan resulted in violent eviction. They are using smartphones, laptops and social networking sites to mobilize protesters and they have translated their position into 19 languages to gain international support. They have learned how to organize a mass movement and divide labor, mobilize half a million people in just three days, methodically organize all the details required for such a huge protest, see to it that it ended peacefully and that the site of the demonstration was cleaned up. This sets a new benchmark for mass campaigns in Taiwan.
Media reporting has meant that this has also been a learning experience for the general public. Thanks to the protests, people are now paying attention to the agreement, as this has developed into Taiwan’s most reported and most discussed public policy issue ever.
Because Chang An-le (張安樂), the former Bamboo Union gang leader also known as the “White Wolf,” protested at the legislature, the public is now also considering the difference between freedom of expression for students and for organized crime, and where the limits should be drawn for the freedom to issue threats.
Those in the older generation saying that the students’ ideas are weak must also reflect on their own actions, the government’s opaque and unscrupulous behavior, the legislature’s misbehavior and the main political parties’ infighting and inflexibility, as well as Ma’s refusal to be held accountable, his bumbling ineptitude, his authoritarian handling of cross-strait affairs and his refusal to accept public oversight.
The government’s chaotic handling of the protests prompted protesters to demand a national conference on constitutional reform. Perhaps the students’ ideas are weak, but they are learning fast. One can only hope that the older generation are as quick to learn.
source: Taipei Times
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