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Campaigns urge rule of law, order
’GREEN GRASS CHOPPING’: KMT Legislator Alex Tsai said he planned to counter a ‘legislator recall’ campaign, adding that a ‘green mold’ was plaguing the nation
By Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter
Thousands of people turn up to a New Party-organized march along Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei yesterday in support of democracy and the rule of law in the wake of weeks of social unrest.
Photo: CNA
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) mayoral candidate for Taipei Sean Lien, second right, is surrounded by supporters during a campaign march in Taipei yesterday.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Campaigns urging order and the rule of law were held in Taipei yesterday by the Chinese National Chinese Party (KMT) and the New Party, aiming to counteract the recent social movements that they described as “irrational” and waged by the “minority.”
Responding to the KMT Youth Work Committee and Youth League’s call of “safeguarding public power and social stability,” thousands of people gathered outside the Taipei Railway Station yesterday morning and paraded their way to the Zhongzheng First Police Precinct office afterward to show their support for the police.
Parodying the antinuclear protesters’ slogan: “I’m a human being, I’m antinuclear,” some of the KMT supporters held up a banner reading “I’m a human being, I’m anti-chaos.”
The crowd also chanted that they were against violence and occupation and for democracy, rule of law and the police.
KMT Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien (連勝文) and KMT Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元) were also present, slamming those who “broke the law just to champion their causes.”
“There are protesters in this society who unleashed struggles that crossed the line into irrationality. We believe that the police experienced a difficult time [maintaining order] and are frustrated with the toil,” Lien said.
Lien called on the supporters to use their votes to “teach them a lesson” as many of those who attempted to disrupt government operations, he said, had their own axe to grind in the social movements for the year-end seven-in-one election.
The crowd responded with shouts of dong suan (凍蒜), which means “get elected” in Taiwanese.
Meanwhile, Tsai called the protesters yesterday “the bravest people in Taiwan” and said they were “to protect the police from the rioters’ bullying.”
Being pinpointed by netizens as one of three KMT lawmakers to be recalled, Tsai said he has been considering launching a “green grass chopping” campaign to counteract the netizens’ “Appendectomy Project” (“appendix” is a pun on the shorthand for “blue legislators” in Mandarin).
“It is fairly easy to chop green grass in Taipei,” he said.
The KMT parade ended at about 10:30am with Deputy National Police Agency Director-General Ho Hai-min (何海民) receiving bouquets and a poster signed by supporters of the police from the crowd.
The host of the event said that more than 20,000 were present for the demonstration, while Chinese-language media estimated that there were 2,000 to 3,000 participants, and a police estimate was about 1,500.
The call for democracy, stability and rule of law voiced in the morning event was echoed by the New May Fourth Movement launched by the New Party in the afternoon.
Tsai also appeared at the rally in the afternoon, among other KMT politicians, criticizing those who had blocked his way out of the Legislative Yuan on Tuesday last week and saying that the country “is haunted by a pall of green mold that should be eliminated immediately.”
New Party Chairman Yok Mu-ming (郁慕明) leveled criticisms against what he called the “criminal deeds” of student-led Sunflower movement leaders Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) and Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷) and against former Democratic Progressive Party chairman Lin I-hsiung’s (林義雄) recent antinuclear hunger strike.
“Lin is the about the same age as me, but a person’s life value is [determined by] how much you have done for the country and the people, not by causing chaos in the society and betraying the country,” he said.
Berating the Sunflower protesters for flying the Republic of China (ROC) flag upside down, Yok said the act “only made others look down upon [the protesters] and prompted patriots to stand up.”
A stand organized by the pro-unification Patriot Association (愛國同心會) was collecting signatures for the “firing of Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng” (王金平), with people answering to the request, calling Wang “a blue-skinned fox with green bones.”
China Unification Promotion Party leader and former gang leader Chang An-le (張安樂) said the student-led movement was a “poppy flower” movement misbranded as “sunflower,” as it had incited “unending subsequent troubles.”
Two of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) sisters were spotted on the scene with ROC flags and carnations in hands, but declined media interviews.
Police estimates of participants at the start of the rally were about 10,000.
source: Taipei Times
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