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Editorial: Show of
concern was ill-conceived
The predominantly student-based Youth Alliance Against Media Monsters helped
organize protests in Taipei last week against the buyout of the Next Media
Group¡¦s four Taiwanese outlets that attracted students from all over country.
This prompted the Ministry of Education¡¦s Student Affairs Committee to e-mail a
¡§reminder¡¨ to universities that they should ¡§find out more about and show
concern¡¨ for students who took part in the protests. The e-mail included a list
of the universities whose students are members of the alliance. This attempt at
intervention smacks of trying to control students and harkens back to the
obscurantist government policies of the past.
The ministry¡¦s reaction to the protests, especially the e-mail, seems to spring
from a distrust of political activism and students¡¦ participation in civil
movements. The ministry appears to have characterized university students as
unsophisticated, easily incited and in need of guidance. On the surface, the
part of the e-mail that voiced apprehension over the students¡¦ health, given
last week¡¦s ¡§changeable weather,¡¨ could be seen as a legitimate concern, but
neither the students nor the wider society are likely to read it that way. The
draconian thought-control measures employed in Taiwan¡¦s authoritarian past are
far too recent to allow for such naivete.
Educational authorities have long adopted a patriarchal approach toward
students, but the concern expressed in the e-mail was more about social order,
and this anxiety has led them to attempt to discourage students from taking part
in protests. Adults themselves are not sure what these complex issues imply, or
what they want their outcome to be, so they do not want students meddling in
affairs beyond their textbooks and classes in a way that they cannot control.
This is why they have attempted to stop student movements from developing. Even
reportedly liberal institutions have shown a tendency for such shortsighted
actions, such as National Taiwan University¡¦s request last month for the police
to clamp down on any protests on campus.
The growing conservativeness among educational authorities will not help
cultivate critical thinking in university students; it will only produce
compliant citizens who do not question the powers that be.
Freedom of speech, freedom of the press and censorship are important social
issues that deserve to be debated at all levels of society. Student movements
may lack sophistication or maturity of thought, but it is precisely because of
this deficiency, and because of their idealism, that they can be the perfect
antidote to social stagnation and corruption. Student movements have other
qualities ¡X passion, impetuousness and forthrightness ¡X that allow them to dare
to challenge the establishment and entrenched ideas, and to push for reform.
Student movements may make mistakes, but all the mistakes made to date have just
been part of the learning process. These experiences will teach them much about
how better to communicate and refine their ideas and how to compromise. Members
of the 1960s hippy movement in the US, and of the Wild Lillies and Wild
Strawberries movements in Taiwan, have gone from protesting to reforming to
becoming active members of society.
Hundreds of students gathered last week outside the Fair Trade Commission, just
a stone¡¦s throw from the ministry. If the ministry was so concerned for the
students¡¦ health, why did Minister of Education Chiang Wei-ling (½±°¶¹ç) not simply
remind them to bring waterproof gear, instead of asking universities to ¡§show
concern¡¨ for those taking part in the protest?
Chiang could at least have taken a leaf from the book of one of his
predecessors, Cheng Jei-cheng (¾G·ç«°) who, in 2008, not only sent ministry
officials to talk to protesters, but went in person to meet the students taking
part in the Wild Strawberries Movement protests. Cheng showed actions speak
louder than e-mails.
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