MCLC: protesters occupy Taiwan legislature (5)

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: protesters occupy Taiwan legislature (5)
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Source: Taipei Times (3/26/14):
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2014/03/26/2003586546

Protesters willing to meet with Ma
FOR ALL TO WITNESS:Student protest leaders said a meeting with the
president to address the trade pact siege should be held in a public
setting
By Alison Hsiao  /  Staff reporter

The leaders of student protesters occupying the legislative chamber and
civic group representatives yesterday agreed to meet with President Ma
Ying-jeou (馬英九) without preconditions, as they called for lawmakers’
support for the passage of an act on the oversight of cross-strait
agreements.

The protesters made the statement in response to remarks by Presidential
Office spokesperson Lee Chia-fei (李佳霏), who said that Ma is willing to
meet with representatives of protesting students “without any
preconditions” to help end the standoff over the cross-strait trade
agreement and allow the legislature to get back on track.

Lee said Ma is willing to invite representatives of the protesters to the
Presidential Office in Taipei to discuss the pact and listen to their
views if it will help end the student-led occupation of the legislature
that began on Tuesday last week.

Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆), a National Taiwan University graduate student and one
of the student leaders, said the protesters agreed to have a conversation
with Ma without preconditions and proposed two questions that have
attracted wide attention for the potential discussion between the two
sides.

“The first question is whether there is a need for the
institutionalization of the supervision of cross-strait agreements, and
the second is whether such a supervision mechanism needs to be in place
before reviewing the cross-strait service trade agreement,” Lin said.

Lin added that the students are willing to converse with Ma “in a public
setting” and to discuss “in concrete terms” the questions mentioned.

“By the time we get there to have the conversation, we will not want to
take extra time to give him a lecture,” Lin said.
Another student leader, Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷), a graduate student at
National Tsing Hua University, said that the conversation should not be a
private one that can be heard only by the representatives, but one that is
open to public witness.

The protest leaders and civil group representatives said that the minutes
of the latest legislative meeting on March 17, made public yesterday,
showed that the review of the trade pact, which according to Chinese
Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers has been completed, was not documented.

It means that the issue has been returned to the legislature’s Internal
Administrative Committee pending further discussion, the group said.

“We ask the government not to hold any negotiations with the Chinese
government until the institutionalization of the supervision of
cross-strait agreements. The trade pact must be returned to the Executive
Yuan until such institutionalization is completed,” Chen said.

The group called on legislators to promise to respond to their three
requests.

“Our first request is that the legalization of a ‘cross-strait agreement
oversight act’ be initiated during this legislative plenary session. The
second is that any reviews of cross-strait agreements be held off until
legislation is finalized. And finally, that the bill be placed on the
legislature’s Procedure Committee agenda,” Chen said.

Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), a research fellow at Academia Sinica, said that
the 
call is “aimed at each legislator rather than only at the party caucus.”

While some, mainly the media, have been asking what the protesters’ “exit
strategy” is, Lin said: “It is president Ma who needs to have an ‘exit
strategy.’