Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
語言:
English
Photo Credit: 山除薇害—罷免王鴻薇/Facebook
THE “GREAT RECALL MOVEMENT” has successfully organized across the country as part of efforts to recall KMT legislators. Even as it is to be questioned whether the movement will prove successful in recalling enough KMT legislators to change the balance of power in the Taiwanese legislature, that recall organizers were able to self-organize across all of Taiwan should demonstrate to the KMT that it hazards pushback from members of the public through its actions.
That the recall movement overcame many obstacles to accomplish this is notable. Among the obstacles reported by recall movement organizers is harassment from KMT-controlled local governments.
Sometimes, this is passive in nature. For example, recall organizers have reported being charged fees to rent public facilities that were not imposed when KMT legislators wished to use the same facilities. This has been criticized as political favoritism.
At other times, this is more direct in nature. Recall organizers have been required to obtain permits for holding signature collection activities, as would normally be required of a protest or march. This occurs despite the fact that collecting signatures for recalls, after all, is not exactly a march or protest.
Businesses that have aligned themselves with the “Great Recall Movement”, such as Touat Books, the flagship civil society cafe/bookstore in Taipei, too, have reported harassment. This has occurred through inspections by the city government to find wrongdoing on the part of the business. In the case of Touat Books, the cafe/bookstore was accused of “illegal construction” when this was, in reality, the outdoor seating area of the cafe.
But one further observes a repeated series of incidents in which recall organizers have been assaulted by individuals while campaigning. One of the most well-known incidents to date took place because the assaulted individual, Lai Ting-ho, is the wife of award-winning author Yang Shuang-zi. Lai was struck on the jaw and hand by a 73-year-old woman, who shouted at her while collecting signatures. The 73-year-old woman now faces a lawsuit.
Yet the number of cases is much more than that, including incidents in Taipei, New Taipei, Keelung, Hualien, Hsinchu, Taichung, and elsewhere. Recall volunteers have been called names, assaulted with umbrellas, and had recall materials destroyed. One case involves a recall volunteer having their feet run over by a scooter.
A number of such cases of assault are committed by elderly individuals. But attacks on recall volunteers are sufficiently widespread that recall volunteers have taken to making sure that recall teams include at least one man. It has been noted by recall volunteers that the dominant demographic in recall volunteering is women in their 30s and 40s, and that volunteer teams more frequently face targeting if there is not a man present.
In this sense, one notes a gendered dynamic in which female recall volunteers have been targeted, even though it is clear that some of the attackers are also women. To this extent, one notes that if many of the attackers have been elderly individuals, this sometimes reflects a pattern seen in society when elderly individuals attack younger individuals because of a perceived lack of respect, as perhaps reflects the influence of Confucianism in Taiwanese society.
This has often been with regard to priority seating for the elderly on public transport in Taiwan. But, more broadly, one notes how elderly individuals with strong loyalty to the KMT feel that it is within their rights to attack recall volunteers, an act not only reflective of authoritarian values, but attitudes by the elderly toward young people.
Even with this pattern of attacks on pro-recall volunteers, one notes that the pan-Blue camp was unable to organize successful recalls against DPP legislators. This bespeaks weakness on the part of the pan-Blue camp, as well as how significant demographics in society have been mobilized to campaign against the KMT. Indeed, while recall efforts against DPP legislators are KMT-organized, what is clear is that recalls against KMT legislators are not and are, in fact, independently organized by the public at large. It is to be seen how the recalls play out, then.