In 2014, a group of student-led activists successfully blocked the passage of a controversial cross-Strait trade deal by occupying Taiwan’s legislature. Five years later, Taiwan’s politics and society have gone through tremendous changes, and in the eyes of movement leaders Lin Fei-fan, Taiwan is also facing growing pressure from China.
A lot can happen in five years, and to Sunflower Movement leader Lin Fei-fan, who recently finished his graduate study at The London School of Economics and Political Science, Taiwan’s politics has also gone through tremendous changes since he led the first ever occupation of Taiwan’s legislature. To him, Taiwan’s new political crisis stems from the rise of populism and China’s attempt to infiltrate Taiwan’s society. Even though Sunflower Movement successfully blocked the passage of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), they also failed to establish mutual understanding with people at the grassroots level.
“We failed to communicate with people at the grassroots level, so that’s why a lot of people remain conservative and unwilling to accept reformation,” said Lin.
Unlike five years ago when quite some young Taiwanese were actively involved with social movements or politics, Lin said he has also noticed the growing trend of people trying to disengage from these activities. “I see many people feel very frustrated because many of the reforms proposed by the government didn’t reflect their interests,” Lin explained. “So instead of continuing to support Tsai Ing-wen, they turned away to support Ko Wen-je or Han Kuo-yu. In other words, the frustration towards the government pushed them to join the populist movement.”
With strong backlash from the grassroots level, Taiwan’s society has also become more divided and progressives are now the minorities in Taiwan. On top of that, Lin points out since some populist politicians are exploiting Taiwanese people’s anti-government sentiments, several political and social reform projects experienced heavy push back. “The majority of people are more conservative than five years ago, so I think this is one of the biggest domestic challenges that Taiwan is facing now.”
Inspire people to reclaim faith in reforms
Lin is not the only one who witnessed the lack of faith in reform among Taiwanese people. Award-winning director Fu Yu, who won the Best Documentary Award with her film “Our Youth in Taiwan” at last year’s Golden Horse Award, pointed out that while DPP harvested the momentum of Sunflower Movement in 2016’s election, the party has failed to live up to Taiwanese people’s aspirations in the last two and a half years. Such result makes many Sunflower participants lose faith in reforms.
“When DPP failed to deliver what people were expecting, it also shattered people’s expectations, which made many who voted for them in 2016 decide to switch allegiance in last year’s election,” Fu explained.
During the process of producing the film, Fu also realized a common problem that many Sunflower participants have. She found that many participants projected their hopes for reforms onto specific individuals or movement, but they never proactively initiate any reform. She thinks such mindset may be the reason why Taiwan’s civil society remains incomplete.
“Taiwan’s civil society still lacks a group of people who consider themselves as citizens and believe what they do can really change things in society,” Fu said. “Citizens’ duties are not limited to casting votes.”
She hopes the film can help Sunflower participants reclaim some faith in reform while triggering the spirit of resistance among those who weren’t part of the movement. To her, the ultimate goal as a filmmaker is to do something that can help the world better understand Taiwan.
Is it possible to initiate another large-scale movement?
Lev Nachman, who has been conducting research related to Sunflower Movement, thinks that while discussion about the movement keeps dwindling year after year, the movement hasn’t become completely irrelevant to social and political development in Taiwan. With the formation of new political parties following the end of the movement, it is clear that these new institutions offered Sunflower activists places to go.
“To some degree, people aren’t talking about the movement itself but that doesn’t mean they have stopped caring about the values of the movement,” Nachman said. “It’s just the organizations that they can express themselves through have changed.”
However, Nachman said it is important for Sunflower activists to send a message to Taiwan’s civil society that the complacency people felt at the end of Sunflower is no longer acceptable, as pro-China political forces in Taiwan are threatening Taiwan’s sovereignty and democracy at a scale that’s uncomparable five years ago.
“I think it’s critical that activists from the Sunflower cohort remember the fear they felt during Sunflower,” Nachman explained. “When you don’t memorialize the movement, you kind of forget what it was all about. I think that’s the trade-off that they have to deal with.”
With less than 10 months until Taiwan’s 2020 presidential election, Lin thinks it’s important for the current administration to try to pass the cross-Strait oversight legislation, since it safeguards Taiwan’s democratic institutions from China’s infiltration campaigns. Additionally, people in the social movement circle or pro-independence forces in Taiwan, they need to try to rebuild the linkage between themselves and the civil society, because Taiwanese people need to be aware of new threats.
“Education or empowerment is the way to reach the goal,” Lin said. “The most important thing this year is to build a platform between civil society, NGOs, social movement campaigns, the ruling and opposition parties. The reason why this platform is important is because we have seen a lot of reforms being postponed in the last two years because of the distrust among three different parties.”
As he tries to figure out the best way for him to return to Taiwan’s politics, he thinks it’s important to evaluate Sunflower Movement from a different perspective. “We need to create new strategies by reevaluating the failures of Sunflower Movement, instead of purely focusing on the achievement of the movement.”
(Feature photo by Alysa Chiu)
