The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Tiananmen protest leader haunted by ghosts, 25 years on Posted: 25 May 2014 10:09 PM PDT Students rallying for democracy and freedom had filled the symbolic heart of Chinese power with euphoria, drawing in workers and intellectuals and inspiring protests around the country. But after seven weeks in the square their aspirations were abruptly shattered by an overnight military crackdown that ended on June 4, 1989, leaving hundreds of people dead – by some estimates, more than 1,000 – and a ruling party hell-bent on preventing any future such challenges to its power. "During the time it did seem quite promising that the Chinese authorities may yield, may actually answer to our call for Chinese political reform," said Wuer, then a charismatic 21-year-old activist, who became number two on the government's most-wanted list of student leaders. "I think at the beginning (of the killings) everybody was in a state of shock. So was I," he said at a university in Taiwan, his adopted home. The movement, fuelled by frustration from years of economic upheaval, gathered pace in mid-April as public mourning for the reform-minded former party chief Hu Yaobang morphed into calls for political change and curbs on corruption. Students began to pour into Tiananmen Square. Thousands later went on hunger strike and eventually erected a Goddess of Democracy resembling New York's Statue of Liberty facing the portrait of Mao Zedong hanging on the wall of the Forbidden City. During a meeting between student leaders and politicians broadcast live on state television, Wuer publicly interrupted the hardline then-premier Li Peng, becoming an overnight celebrity. "We apply pressure and we are hoping for the regime to make a positive choice," he said. "The choice for them was also clear, they could dialogue and by doing so they would certainly be able to maintain a leading position in the Chinese further political development," he said. "But instead they decided to take another choice – military crackdown." The protests came under the global spotlight as foreign reporters flocked to Beijing to cover a May 15 visit by then-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev – a historic event that was quickly overtaken by domestic turmoil. China's Communist leaders were split over how to respond, with moderates led by party general secretary Zhao Ziyang eventually losing. Zhao last appeared in public on May 19, pleading tearfully on the square for the students to go home before being ousted and confined under house arrest until his death in 2005. Hardliners, among them China's supreme leader Deng Xiaoping, took charge, branded the protest a "counter-revolutionary rebellion" and declared martial law. For two weeks they were unable to take control of the square, until the People's Liberation Army moved in to clear it on the night of June 3 to 4 while soldiers flanked by tanks opened fire elsewhere. Fighting broke out with students who defended themselves with sticks and makeshift weapons. "The bullets flying above your head, that is something you would never have learned in any movies or in any of the literature, until it actually happens in your life," Wuer said. Authorities hunted down protest leaders, imprisoning many even as sympathisers in Hong Kong mobilised to smuggle students out and Western governments offered asylum. "Wherever I go the people of China supported and helped us, helped me to escape. I managed to go all the way to the border, to the south," Wuer said, and supporters in Hong Kong helped him escape. For years China remained an international pariah hamstrung by sanctions. But as it has built its economy into the world's second largest, most other countries have embraced it, with many softening their criticism of rights abuses to avoid upsetting their giant trade partner. The crackdown remains a strict taboo inside China, erased from textbooks, the media and Internet, leaving younger generations largely unaware of the nature of the momentous event. In the beginning of his exile Wuer experienced sadness and misery, he said, "but then of course it's a situation that we have to endure". The dynamic and eloquent activist went on to enjoy a career in finance and a role as a political commentator in Taiwan. Yet the legacy of Tiananmen still haunts him – failing to see political change in his homeland, surviving when fellow protesters did not, living in exile from his country and family. He has tried unsuccessfully to return to the mainland to visit his ageing parents, both Uighur intellectuals. "It's a sad fact, sad fact for this person, for my family, but it's also a very sad fact for China," he said. He is kept awake by the fact that many of his fellow students and protestors died that night, he said. "I cannot make peace with the fact that I am in exile, I cannot make peace with the fact that I am being bullied by one of the biggest, most powerful totalitarian regimes," he said. "I cannot make peace with the fact that I am a survivor of a massacre, I cannot make peace with that guilt, with that sense of mission." – AFP, May 26, 2014. |
| Older Australian teachers delaying retirement Posted: 25 May 2014 09:52 PM PDT More west Australian schoolteachers are working past retirement age making it harder for teaching graduates to find jobs, Xinhua news agency reports citing local media. Data from the West Australia Education Department shows the number of teachers working past 65 has risen from 469 in 2010 to 803 this year, a jump of 71%. The rise has boosted the overall number of teachers aged 55 and over to 6,540, a rise of 25%. This senior group now makes up almost a third of the state's 20,600 public teachers. Experts say older authority figures foster respect but the widening age gap between teachers and tech-savvy pupils presents challenges as the use of technology in classrooms increases. The more teachers delay retirement, due to financial insecurity after the global financial crisis, the fewer jobs there will be for graduates. University of Western Australia dean of education Professor Helen Wildy said the rate of retirement had slowed since the global financial crisis "and is getting slower". "It means there is not as many opportunities for graduate teachers but there will be a time when this baby boomer generation will retire en masse, creating a big demand then for teachers to replace them," she was quoted by the West Australian as saying. Wildy said older teachers brought knowledge and experience into the classroom but it was healthy for students to be taught by teachers of different ages. West Australia State School Teachers Union president Pat Byrne said the federal government's plans to increase the retirement age to 70 meant the trend would continue. "Most teaching is not dependent on physical health, it's not construction work. A good healthy person is able to teach well past their 60s," she said. Department Workforce executive director Cliff Gillam said until recently most teachers had retired by age 62 but the global financial crisis and the attractiveness of increased wages had lengthened careers. "The department encourages teachers to stay in the workforce so students can benefit from the skills and experience of older teachers," he said. – Bernama, May 26, 2014. |
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