In case of the former, an online movement started last February has been credited with helping produce offline voting behavior that sent President-elect Obama to the White House. In the latter, observers claim Taiwan's tech-savvy younger generation is altering traditional ways of thinking about politics--a forum that has by and large been defined by partisan conflicts. Yet, while the U.S. example testifies to the maturity of a democratic society, Taiwan's represents the continued struggle of a new democracy.
Taiwan's 'Wild Strawberry Student Movement' began Nov. 6 with the mobilization of 500 students to rally in front of the Executive Yuan building in Taipei City. The group's spontaneous protest was in response to allegations of police brutality, which took place during last month's visit of Chen Yunlin, chairman of mainland China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait. The strawberries viewed the police action as an 'unacceptable' assault on the people's right to free speech.
The students are referred to as belonging to a 'strawberry generation,' meaning they are easily bruised and have grown up in a less stressful time than their predecessors. The name of the movement is a further allusion to the 'Wild Lily Student Movement' of March 1990. This was a period in which university students and professors joined together in a six-day demonstration to call for a massive overhaul of the country's political system, with respect to democracy and human rights.
While clashes between police and protesters upset over the government's handling of Chen's visit were breaking out on other side of Taipei, the students' silent yet far-reaching movement was taking root. One student started to broadcast live through Y!Live--an online social networking program--about what was happening before the Executive Yuan, with others using laptops to distribute interviews. By the time Executive Yuan Secretary-General Hsueh Hsiang-chuan appeared on behalf of the administration to talk with the students, simultaneous translations of the discussion had already transmitted overseas.
Online broadcasting, along with messages transferred through social networking sites such as bulletin board systems, Facebook and Twitter, were instrumental to the protesters' systematic mobilization in the hours after the police moved them from the Executive Yuan. They soon re-assembled at Liberty Square in downtown Taipei--a beloved protest venue in the midst of Taiwan's central government buildings--to prepare for a broader engagement. An estimated 3,000 to 4,000 people logged on during peak hours to follow events live as they unfolded.
According to a press statement released by the strawberries through their Web site, the students explained they were protesting against 'a proliferation of state-sponsored violence that is provoking and attacking civil society' during Chen and his delegation's five-day visit. This allegedly included indiscriminately questioning passersby, confiscating national flags, seizing digital video cameras and ordering Sunrise Records on Taipei's Chungshan North Road to close its door because of crowds dancing to music being played.
According to the police interpretation of Taiwan's Assembly and Parade Act, the assembly in front of the Executive Yuan was illegal, both in terms of its procedure and the venue they chose. Students, however, called into question the implementation of the act by means of civil disobedience. They also called on the country's leaders and government officials to take political responsibility. Corresponding actions took place in Hsinchu, Taichung, Chiayi, Tainan and Kaohsiung cities.
The strawberries employed technology they were already adept at using to get their message across, and in the process, sidestepped any barriers such as newsworthiness that traditional media outlets might put in their way, noted Hung Chen-ling, an assistant professor of journalism at National Taiwan University. On blogs that logged events as they unfolded, students crafted theories explaining their actions, exchanged opinions, distributed meeting minutes and published the decisions that were collectively made.
This flurry of virtual-meets-reality activity was soon noticed by the local media, who were quick to announce the arrival of the 'Web 2.0 social movement.' Hung remarked that activists had been making use of the Internet's real-time imagery, interactivity and boundlessness to pursue agendas that often fall off the scope of the mainstream media, and are overshadowed by so-called 'big-man politics.'
The perseverance of the strawberries drew praise and support from members of the academic and cultural circles. They also took up the students' cause using online petitions and further participated by giving speeches, playing music and putting on skits.
'It is commendable that the Web generation responded and stood up for public issues,' Mab Huang, director of the Chang Fo-chuan Center for the Study of Human Rights at Taipei's Soochow University, said in an open-air discussion held at Liberty Square Nov. 15. 'In their own way, they have us thinking how government force should be restricted and how people's rights can be protected when being violated.' Huang also lauded the students for their creativity in adhering to the principles of direct democracy, in which opinions of each and every participant count in the decision-making process.
A sense of indignation over the perceived improper use of police force in a democracy they had been brought up in motivated most of the students to join the sit-in, declared Charlie Shie, a Department of Social Work student at National Taipei University. Shie, who joined the action Nov. 6, explained that despite the sit-in continuing longer than anyone expected, the protesters' appeals have still not been properly addressed.
The social work student admitted difficulties in maintaining the sit-in, and had come to realize that making an achievement in the real world requires more than technology. Indeed, veteran student-movement activists, who are now academics, noted that the absence of the power of discourse, a solid organization base and broader agenda-setting capability had contributed to the movement's limited success. Yet despite these limitations, the participants are still trying to maintain their commitment to the cause by explaining their actions to those stopping by the protest venue, and organizing additional seminars at university campuses.
For Shie, one undeniable accomplishment to emerge from protest is the students' determination not to let Taiwan's party politics taint their actions. 'We did it,' he stated, 'although the mainstream media like to paint us pro-[Democratic Progressive Party].'
Indeed, for a generation that has grown up in the age of Internet, debates on public issues have been part of their daily life, remarked Tang Chih-chieh, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica's Institute of Sociology. In his analysis, netizens, or even 'smart mobs'--used to refer to those who congregate on BBS--conducted their debates on public issues based on reason, rather than party identification, in order to be more persuasive. He added that these people are seen to be more tolerant and ready to consider the position of those who hold different opinions.
Tang noted that in this movement, students who had never met each other before could band together for a common goal. Moreover, deliberative democracy was adopted in making decisions though it could make the group less effective. 'They are able to work together while preserving their respective differences. This is unimaginable for our generation who were brought up under authoritarian rule,' he said.
While many are dubious as to the extent of what the strawberries can achieve, Shie explained that although the group would not be able to change the world overnight, for many members, joining the protest has made a significant change in their own lives. 'I changed by joining the protest and now understand the importance of standing up for one's own rights,' he said.
Claiming to have been affected by the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights since he was an elementary-school student, Shie stressed that the probability of nothing being changed now should not prevent people from acting, especially when the 'chips are down.'
It seems Taiwan's politicians are now responsible for determining what role they want to play in the process of responding to voices from the civic society in this age of advanced technology. A cue could be taken from Obama's election victory; but it might be more relevant to note what Andrew Rasiej, the founder of the Personal Democracy Forum, said of the intersection of politics and technology: 'Any politicians who fail to recognize that we are in a post-party era with a new political ecology in which connecting like minds and forming a movement is so much easier will not be around long.'
Write to June Tsai at mailto: june@mail.gio.gov.tw