Our Students Are Being Sued One by One

The weather is freezing at the end of the year, but the newspaper reports about eighteen students indicted over the Miaoli anti-wind turbine protest make people feel even colder!

Not only are these eighteen students not the only group of students prosecuted in the string of protest events over the past year or more, but some of them have also been prosecuted more than once. Moreover, observing recent changes makes one even more worried. In the past, these incidents were often prosecuted under the Assembly and Parade Act; now, however, the charges have become diverse, such as "insulting a public official," "obstructing a public official," and "offense of compulsion," making Taiwan look virtually like a police state and inevitably casting doubt on the relationship between the police, prosecutors, government, and business.

Could it be that Miaoli is truly another realm? Having already forced several people to commit suicide in despair, alongside several others whose deaths remain unexplained, is that still not enough? Must they continue to mercilessly escort wealthy businessmen and disregard the life and death of the people by utilizing so-called "public authority" and inescapable judicial shackles? Can the rich and powerful really do whatever they want? Do the poor and powerless have no choice but to be slaughtered at will? Let alone the intimidated administrative heads; however, what on earth is going on with the prosecutors and police in Miaoli? Is it truly a case of "when one person is greedy and lawless, the entire nation falls into chaos"? Are these not precisely the answers that these anxious students want to know? Yet how does the state respond?

Once upon a time, Ma Ying-jeou responded like this: "Return the streets to the people." Once upon a time, Chiang Yi-huah, who came to power because of the Wild Strawberry student protests, promised to amend the Assembly and Parade Act to give people more freedom of speech. Yet not only have the streets not been returned to the people, but the police have also been given expanded powers to compete with the people for road rights, creating obstacles everywhere to the people's freedom to express their opinions. The Assembly and Parade Act has not only been repeatedly obstructed by the ruling party, but because judges had previously petitioned for constitutional interpretation, prosecutors have resorted to even harsher legal provisions to deal with the people. Regardless of the future trial outcomes of these indictments, the goal of politicians, businessmen, prosecutors, and police in trapping these students who seek justice and fairness has already been achieved.

However, who are these students? Are they not the children of the people? Are they not Taiwan's future? Do we not have the responsibility to answer the questions they raise through their actions? Do we not have the responsibility to stand behind them, to support their concern for society and the country, and to support their pursuit of the freedom to express their opinions? Freedom also has boundaries, but that is certainly not a line that those in power in the state, local administrative heads, or even prosecutorial and judicial units should draw. Even before the Council of Grand Justices has reached a conclusion on the freedom of the people to express their opinions, the prosecutors and police, who hold disproportionate power, should observe proper boundaries and refrain from destroying Taiwan's precious foundation of democracy—the freedom of the people to express their opinions.