這是經濟學人專寫亞洲地區事務的專欄Banyan的新文章，我先儘快做了翻譯。經濟學人一週一刊，或許下個禮拜這篇就會出現在新一期的刊物上頭了。這代表了這件事情，是有國際社會在關注的，而對於政府不滿的發聲，以也無時無刻出現在自由世界的每一個角落，烏克蘭人民為了不想與俄羅斯再次在經濟上靠近，在獨立廣場(Maiden)上喊出了他們的聲音。
台灣人民也一樣，我們有權利、也應該要喊出自己的聲音，不要覺得自己不夠深思熟慮。昨天我在FB上寫到：
剛才有朋友問我，我會不會很在意去立法院那邊的人其實可能什麼都不懂，只是湊熱鬧的。我把我的回應整理在下面，希望給對於這個議題仍在猶豫的人一些鼓勵:
不會，願意行動的人有熱情，不論他就算現在不懂，他未來有意願去弄懂、然後重新再次決定自己該怎麼樣的機會，遠比坐在鍵盤前面酸言酸語的犬儒主義者多的多。如果我今天不懂，那麼我就知道我該學，我明天就可以懂；把時間放在檢討別人懂不懂的人，根本無暇檢視自己，你說他們真的有能力、有權力去批判你的行動嗎，老子不信。
當他們去投票的時候，從來也不會有人去計較他們說「ㄟ你政見有讀完嗎？你有作那些政見的好壞政策分析嗎？」，從來沒有。那麼為什麼對於站出來表達自己意見的門檻突然就變高了？如果當有人用「你懂得還不夠多，所以你不該表態。」企圖說服你的時候，我的想法是，這潛台詞只是「你不要發表(跟我心裡所想不同的)意見」，如果意見跟自己一樣，那根本兩個人圍在一起取暖都來不及了，哪可能還叫你不要表態呢？本能地，他們知道要阻止與自己意見不同的人越來越多。
不管是什麼樣的意見，你都該勇敢表達出來。在討論中汲取到其他人的想法，然後看看自己所拿到的東西有沒有牴觸或不合之處，接下來再次進行修正。不要僅僅滿足於各式各樣的「懶人包」，討論才是真正能夠讓思想進步最快的方式，找你心中的強者，如果目前立場相似，就請他聊聊他的觀點，就算立場不同被電，也要讓自己被電的心服口服。然後進步才會成為可能。
我們並不孤獨，佔領立法院活動所使用的協作筆記平台hackpad，因為他們使用的流量太大，一天就被搞爆了三次，但他們也很有義氣的馬上額外增援，並表示，能夠對於世界各地的政府公開行動有所助益，他們感到很光榮。
當年在天安門廣場的學運領袖，也來到了立法院，與台灣的年輕聲音站在一起。我們的聲音值得被聽見，為此，我們還要繼續努力。
同場加映：
殭屍民主
學生當家 Students in the house
http://www.economist.com/blogs/banyan/2014/03/politics-taiwan
NEARLY three days into their occupation of the debating chamber of the Legislative Yuan, Taiwan’s parliament, in Taipei, dozens of activists, mostly students, show no sign of flagging. They broke in on Tuesday evening, March 18th, and resisted attempts by the police to evict them overnight. Since then, a stand-off has persisted. The police are stopping new arrivals from joining them, but allow in food and water. The protesters include a team of white-coated medics. They look well settled.
佔領立法院的行動已持續到第三天，大部分的抗議者是學生，而他們看起來一點也沒有衰弱下去的樣子。他們在3/18週二晚上衝入了立法院，並成功抵抗了企圖使他們離開的警力，雙方僵持至今，警察不讓新的人再進入，但是允許水與食物的輸送。抗議者中有包含了穿著白袍的醫生們，活動目前相當安穩。
Three legislators from the main opposition, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), started 70-hour hunger-strikes just before the occupation. They are taking eight-hour shifts in the parliament to afford the protesters extra protection—to shift the students, the police will also have to manhandle the legislators.
反對黨民進黨的立法委員們，在佔領前開始了70小時的絕食抗議。他們以八個小時為單位進行輪班，提供給抗議者們額外的保護--因為如此一來，只要警察要動學生，就得先動他們這些立委才行。
Outside, a crowd of several hundred ignores the drizzle to listen to speeches and songs, wave artificial sunflowers, and shout denunciations of the government and of Taiwan’s president, Ma Ying-jeou.
在外頭，大量群眾無謂天空飄著小雨，聽著演說和歌曲，揮舞著向日葵，並譴責對於台灣政府以及總統馬英九的行為。
The occupation was billed as lasting 120 hours, to block a plenary parliamentary session on Friday 21st March, and to provide a deadline for the government to meet the protesters’ demands. These are three-fold: they want Mr Ma to come to the chamber himself to apologise for the way in which his party pushed an agreement on opening up services trade with China through parliament on Monday (available here, in Chinese); they also want the parliamentary speaker, Wang Jin-pyng (who happens to be a rival to Mr Ma in the ruling party, the Kuomintang, or KMT ) to come to pay his respects; and they want legislation passed to institutionalise parliament’s right to scrutinise such agreements item by item.
這次的佔領活動預計持續120個小時，目的在阻擋3/21禮拜五預定的立法院議事，也將此作為給予政府回應抗議者要求的時限。要求包括三大項：要求總統馬英九到議院來，為了他的政黨在推行與中國的服務貿易協定上的粗暴手段道歉，以及希望立法院長王金平（正好是馬英九在國民黨內的敵手）來到此處致意，最後並要求將立法機關對該類協議進行逐條審查的權利給制度化。
The DPP insists the students are acting on their own initiative. But it is supporting their protest, which it believes is tapping a rich vein of discontent with the government, focusing on the services-trade agreement.
民進黨稱此次的行動是來自學生的自主行為，這也讓充滿大量對政府不滿而站出來的民眾的此一活動，能夠聚焦在服務貿易協定此一議題上。
The sit-in was provoked by what the DPP sees as the KMT’s breaking of its promise to allow a parliamentary committee to review the agreement clause by clause. At a press conference on March 20th, the DPP’s chairman, Su Tseng-chang, portrayed this as a “key moment” for Taiwan’s quarter-century-old democracy, which he said the party would “do whatever it takes” to protect.
此次靜坐的引爆點，主要來自於民進黨控訴國民黨沒能履行其對於服貿協定進行逐條審查的承諾。在3/20號的記者會上，民進黨主席蘇貞昌，形容這是台灣尚稱年輕民主制度的「關鍵時刻」，而他也宣示他的政黨將會盡其所能的進行抗爭。
In less lofty terms, the DPP seems to have spotted an opportunity to exploit the unpopularity of a man they call “a 9% president”—a reference to the low point Mr Ma’s approval rating fell to last year in opinion polls—on an issue where they think he is weak. With local elections in December and a new presidential contest due in 2016, when Mr Ma will have to stand down, the DPP seems to think it has the KMT on the run.
以較實際的角度來說，民進黨似乎將此作為利用馬英九低支持度的好時機，由於去年的民調顯示出馬英九的支持率極低，他們戲稱馬英九為「9趴總統」。十二月的地方選舉，以及2016的總統大戰（馬英九不能再次連任），民進黨認為這次爭議有可能使國民黨顯得弱勢。
Improving relations with China has been a central theme of Mr Ma’s presidency since he took office in 2008. In 2010 China and Taiwan signed the Economic Co-operation Framework Agreement (ECFA), significantly boosting cross-strait ties. The services agreement, signed last June, is part of the effort to implement that framework.
自2008年執政以來，改善與中國之間的關係一直是馬政府的施政主軸，2010年，中國與台灣之間簽署了ECFA，強化了跨海峽的連結。在去年六月簽署的服貿協定，是ECFA架構下的一個強化部分。
At the press conference, Mr Su spoke under a banner reading: “Demand substantial review; restart negotiations with China.” The DPP argues the agreement will hurt small businesses on Taiwan and is lopsided in some of its market-opening measures. But also, the party’s roots are in the movement that wants Taiwan to declare formal independence from China; it worries about Taiwan’s becoming too dependent economically on the mainland. Hsiao Bi-khim, one of the DPP hunger-strikers, thinks most people on Taiwan are behind it on this, since they have yet to see the benefits they were promised from ECFA. The economy is still, by local standards, sluggish.
在記者會中，蘇貞昌在「要求實質審查，重啟與中國的談判」的布條標語下發言。民進黨認為此協定將會傷害台灣的中小企業，且有些市場開放的規定顯得不對等。但民進黨在此次運動中的主軸仍是關心是否能在與中國的關係中，維持著實質的獨立性，他們擔心台灣在經濟上過分依賴中國，民進黨的絕食抗議者之一蕭美琴，認為大多數的台灣人會支持這個想法，因為人民仍未看見ECFA所帶來的好處，經濟表現，以當地的標準來說，仍然貧弱。
For his part, Mr Ma may be thinking about his legacy, and wanting to use his remaining years in power to make a breakthrough in relations with China. Last month Nanjing in China played host to the first formal meeting between ministers from China and Taiwan in their government capacities since the end of the civil war in 1949 formalised the division. A next step would be a summit between Mr Ma and China’s president, Xi Jinping. Hopes that the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Beijing this autumn might provide an opportunity are fading. But it would be easier to achieve a meeting elsewhere if the implementation of ECFA were going well.
另一方面，馬英九可能在想著他所留下的政治遺產，並思考利用接下來的任期使與中國的關係有更進一步的突破。上個月在南京，進行了自1949年後首次的雙方政府部門部長的正式會面，而這個會面便是上述「強化關係」的一環。下一步應該會是馬英九與習近平的高峰會，但將今年秋天在北京進行的亞太經合會作為此一舞台的希望正在消逝，不過只要ECFA的實施繼續順利進行，這樣的面會仍有可能在其他地方進行。
In the shorter term, however, Mr Ma has a nasty local problem. The students say they will not leave after their five-day deadline if their demands have not been met; and they may take their “occupy” strategy to other targets: Mr Ma’s own office, for example.
短期來說，馬英九有相當難解的地方性問題要解決，學生宣稱就算他們給的5天期限到期，只要政府沒能回應他們的要求，他們也不會離開，而他們也可能將他們的「佔領」目標擴大，比方說：馬英九自身的辦公室。
It is already highly unusual for a government to have tolerated the seizure of parliament by protesters for so long. But, fearful of the ugly headlines using force against peaceful students would attract, it does not have many easy options.
政府居然容忍有人佔領議會這麼長的一段時間，其實是相當不尋常的。但他們懼怕用暴力去對付和平的學生們，會佔據新聞的版面。似乎也沒有什麼更好的選項。
