Taiwan's Sunflower Movement: Seeds of rebellion one year on
It was a day to remember. One year ago today, the country watched with bated breath as a group of students forced its way past policemen and seized parliament, something unheard of, even unthinkable, in Taiwan.
What was meant to be a silent sit-in in front of the Legislative Yuan erupted into a nationwide protest that lasted more than 20 days, after the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) party had attempted to push through a controversial trade pact with China.
Emotions ran high over three weeks. Peaceful protest rallies in support of the students in parliament were met with water canon and police batons.
On April 6, the government finally promised to postpone review of the trade pact until legislation monitoring all cross-strait agreements had been passed. The protesters ended the siege in high spirits and promised they would “spread the sunflowers throughout Taiwan”.
Since then many were waiting for the high-strung emotions to die down, to see if the idealistic plans of these youngsters would wane as time passed. Yet even as the days returned to their normal pattern, seeds of the movement continue to sprout here and there.
The strongest shoot is that the younger generation is showing a willingness to refocus its energy on public and political affairs. The government has been forced time and again not to underestimate the power of the Internet, and is scrambling to employ its own online army to either hit back at the protesting crowds or pacify them using its own jargon.
The outcome also brought the most remarkable victory that Taiwan has seen in its short history of democracy. Not only did young people have their eyes trained on every move the government was making, they recognised the power they had to use their votes to change the country around them, using this to reject the establishment and all authority they deemed incompetent. So they, and all those weary of the polarised political status quo in Taiwan, made their power felt in 2014’s local elections, voting in independent candidate Ko Wen-je as Tapei mayor, along with many fellow independent candidates.
Benefiting from the fruit of the movement, Ko represented the future many were eager for. Just as many rejoiced in the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) numerous victories in the 2014 elections, the opposition party could have won without the Sunflower Movement – President Ma Ying-jeou’s ailing rule may well have triggered their triumph.
The same does not go for the Taipei mayor. The awakening of the younger generation cinched Ko’s iconic win, and allowed him to “give the power back to the people” – just what the movement was calling for: for authority to listen.
President Ma enjoyed re-election in 2012, but the months that followed proved the Ma administration was ill-fitted for another shot. The tricky wording of the Nuke 4 referendum, the mysterious death of an innocent corporal in Taiwan’s army, and the light sentences given to Ma’s favourite aides who were found guilty of corruption... and most of all, its refusal to face the people’s needs. The resentment no longer trickled quietly; it festered and blew into the surging force behind the movement.
A strait away, another city took heart after the Sunflower Movement ended. Hong Kongers too stood their ground against Beijing’s interference, and a connection wrought of common discontent comforted Taiwan and Hong Kong. China, meanwhile, is allowing itself to sweat a little over the changes going on in Taiwan, with Beijing citing the “1992 Consensus” repeatedly as if their words could stop the inevitable: the KMT’s upcoming defeat in the 2016 presidential elections.
While the movement began over the government’s blunt backing of the controversial pact, the pact itself has diminished as the main point of the protests. It was a vessel that contained the people’s frustration, borne because people were no longer willing to leave things to the government; it slammed down on the table ugly topics for all to see and judge.
In the year following the movement, we see the Ma administration in an awkward pause. Ma seems to have all but backed out of the limelight and given up concern for major national issues.
The president and the Cabinet seem to be biding their time until they can hand the reins over – the people’s voices do not seem to have made an impression, for our leaders have resorted to hiding from us. The next government would do well to learn from the Sunflower Movement. It would be foolish to think the movement dead, the protesters pacified. For now, the people of Taiwan have taken back what makes the country a true democracy: the right to express and seek to implement their beliefs.
