This is one of the finest articles I've read in recent years.
After DPP disposed of social movement and depleted all relevant resources in early 1990s, the momentum seemed to have subsided ever since.
The power of people regained its strength when "Rectifying Taiwan's Name" Movement was organized by 王獻極 and his team around 2000. The movement culminated on Sept 6, 2003 when more than 150,000 people rallied in front of the Presidential Office. Its unprecedented scale led to Feb 28, 2004 Hand-in-Hand Rally inspired by the Baltic Way in 1989.
What do we learn from these events? Rather than a handful of martyrs, participants in recent rallies have transformed into real middle-class with "happiness and hope" in their faces. The normally apolitical middle class, teachers, lawyers, bankers, business executives, can be spirited into action by fear of a corrupted and/or suppressed society.
The key, in my humble opinion, is to lure the people out and form a critical mass on the street, while at the same time, extreme measures may have to be employed to create the stance we need.
At the end of the day, social movement is still the last tool we can count on.
Posted by Holmes the Formosan
at July 18,2006 23:29