The climactic protest
Thankfully, the Wild Strawberries demonstration on Monday went off without a hitch. No violent clashes, nothing thrown, no arrests. The fact that everything stayed peaceful and went as planned shows that:
A) protesters can stay nonviolent
B) government is learning about acceptable ways to handle protesters
It’s sad to hear that some of the supporters still think that “the students’ action would not be as effective as throwing gasoline bombs, like we did in the old days.” [1] Clearly, this does not reflect on the Wild Strawberries movement, but also shows that civil society still has a long way to go. Furthermore, it is interesting and refreshing to hear that the protest stayed nonpartisan. An elderly couple complained about not being able to display their pro-independence banners at the rally, but I must say this. It doesn’t matter whether you are pro-independence, pro-unification, or pro-status quo — freedom of speech is important for everyone. This universal right is in everybody’s best interests.
Besides, it’s not like the past DPP administration is blameless on limiting free speech. Remember when they banned DPP members from appearing on TVBS and then threatened to shut down the news station after the station broke a story on DPP corruption? [2]
[1] Taipei Times: Wild Strawberries protest proves skeptics wrong
[2] Taipei Times: GIO readies the blowtorch for TVBS
