Statement On Withdrawing From The Legislative Yuan
The statement declaring that occupiers would withdraw from the Legislative Yuan on April 10th
The following statement was released on April 7th, 2014, declaring that occupiers would withdraw from the Legislative Yuan on April 10th. The original Chinese language text can be seen here.
The occupation of the Legislative Yuan has reached a full 21 days as of today. That this movement could obtain strong support from Taiwanese society and in that way be entrusted with legitimacy, we are deeply grateful to the the Taiwanese people for their support and participation. Today, we have decided to announce a big decision. The occupation of the Legislative Yuan has reached a certain stage of responsibility, in order for future development of the movement, because we have succeeded in allowing all of the Taiwanese people understand that we are controlled by a select group of peoples. Resistance to control, to allow the constitution to be the sovereign right of citizens, to move from ideals to reality, we are this generation of Taiwanese that must do this. We know that everyone has different expectations and desires of this movement, but in taking stock of our movement’s successes so far, we announce that the student movement has accumulated enough energy to transform into a people’s movement. At this time, it is best time for young people to step outside of the Legislative Yuan to all over the country.
We can list out the accomplishments to date for the four major demands of the movement:
Demand #1: Legalize the Cross-Straits Oversight Bill
The civil society version of the Cross-Straits Oversight Bill (Accompanying the revision of the Law Governing the Legislative Yuan’s Power (立法院職權行使法)) has been sent to the Legislative Yuan, on the other hand, the Executive Yuan has already sent the Executive Yuan’s version of the bill to the Legislative Yuan. We must at this point reaffirm that we have five principles for the legalization of the Cross-Straits Oversight Bill (兩岸協議監督條例): That it implements citizen participation, legislative oversight, insurance of human rights, freedom of information, and that the government uphold its responsibilities.
Demand #2: First legalize the Cross-Straits Oversight Bill, Then Discuss The CSSTA
Majority speaker Wang Jinpyng (王金平) on April 6th stated, “Before passage of the Cross-Straits Oversight Bill, cross-party consultations on the CSSTA will not be held.” Later on that night, members of the KMT, Taipei (台北) mayor Hau Pei-Tsun (郝柏村), Taichung mayor Jason Hu (胡志強), strongly expressed supported the notion of first legalizing the cross-straits oversight bill before discussing the CSSTA.
Demand #3: Convene a Constitutional People’s Assembly of Citizens
Students and civil society groups on April 6th, held a grassroots forum on constitutional governance outside of the Legislative Yuan, and have decided to hold a grassroots discussion for advancing discussion of constitutional governance on April 8th. This has firmly demonstrated what our expectations and hopes for constitutional governance are.
Demand #4: Repeal the CSSTA
According to the decision of the Legislative Yuan committee on March 24th, the Executive Yuan has been requested to return the CSSTA and to reopen discussions, with later readings to be handled by the Legislative Yuan.
The results we have obtained are not limited to our four concrete demands. Whether at the level of the constitutional governance of our nation domestically to international geopolitics, this movement has achieved its aim of shocking the people into action, exceeding our wildest expectations. From the level of domestic constitutional government, from 2008, the Ma administration has arbitrarily abused its authority, broken the rule of law, and violated human rights, leading to the regression of democracy and a constitutional crisis. The CSSTA is merely the tip of the iceberg, leading students and numerous unaccountable civil organization to take a stand to confront this danger. The Ma administration forcing through the CSSTA clearly demonstrates how the Ma administration has lost political legitimacy and exposes the means by which the KMT secretly conducts business on both sides of the Taiwan straits for the benefit of cross-strait business conglomerates, sacrificing the livelihood of the people. We will not permit secret agreements for cross-straits trade anymore or any political regime brazenly attempting to sell out Taiwan.
In terms of international politics, we have clearly expressed that the Taiwanese people are not willing to accept China’s manipulation of the people’s will, and disrupted the secret arrangements of China, America, and Japan for Taiwan. And we have non-violently and peacefully demonstrated in a brand new way, something which will attract the attention of young people across Asia and the world, as well as their sympathy and support. At this time we have to discuss and plan what the next steps to advance the movement will be. We hope to tour the country to hold discussions at the grassroots level of society, including speeches, assemblies, and grassroots assemblies, develop ways to use the Internet as a way to provide oversight over the legislature, and deepen the anti-CSSTA and pro-Cross-Straits Oversight Bill movement. With regards to our demand of a constitutional meeting of citizens and people’s assemblies and the promotion of discussion, we can continue to hold more discussion events in every part of the country, and continue to promote civic constitutional discussions.
In summary, we need to allow more citizens concerned with the future of our country to confront these large challenges. During the time we have occupied the Legislative Yuan, there are some students from central and southern Taiwan who organized Democracy Kuroshio, to expand outside of the Legislative Yuan occupation to target and put pressure on corrupt legislators. These few days, they have mobilized north, to target Li Hong-Chi (林鴻池), Lin Te-Fu (林德福), and Wu Yusheng’s (吳育昇) election districts, and to express their ideals to voters. They received enthusiastic responses. This represents that the Taiwanese people has power and that we must preserve this sense of energy as we leave the Legislative Yuan, in order to become a power to transform Taiwan. Apart from Democracy Kuroshio, many students and civil society organizations have gathered in this movement, developed ties, and when they leave the Legislative Yuan, we will begin to organize in new ways, to allow young people with ideals to reform politics to come together as droplets in a stream which will eventually surge up like the sea.
We also welcome friends who have supported this movement from all over the country to meet with us. When recalcitrant legislators abandon their voters, to plot only for their own gain, this is the time we should join hands again, and to occupy society once again.