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Legislature passes farm villages act
WINDOW DRESSING: Angry farming activists said the controversial bill was akin
to painting the outside walls of a house while doing nothing to fix the leaking
roof
By Flora Wang and Loa Iok-sin
STAFF REPORTERS
Thursday, Jul 15, 2010, Page 1
The legislature — minus Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)
lawmakers — concluded this month’s provisional session yesterday by pushing
through the controversial Farm Villages Revival Act (農村再生條例).
The legislature finalized the size of the Farm Villages Rejuvenation Fund at
NT$150 billion (US$4.6 billion) after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers
negotiated among themselves. The government can file requests for the budget
over a 10-year period to help the fund reach that size.
The legislature also approved a KMT caucus resolution that the Council of
Agriculture (COA) can ask for an additional NT$50 billion 10 years after the
fund is set up.
In accordance with the act, the fund will be spent on “farm village revival
projects,” which refer to improvements of the environment of farm villages,
public construction projects within the villages, renovation of individual farm
houses, measures to stimulate agriculture in the villages and protection of farm
village culture.
The KMT caucus had planned to pass the bill on Tuesday, but shortly after
legislative staffers began the second reading of the bill on Tuesday, KMT
Legislator Wong Chung-chun (翁重鈞) blocked the bill out of dissatisfaction with
the caucus’ decision to reduce the fund from NT$200 billion to NT$150 billion.
Legislators across party lines had previously reached a consensus during
meetings chaired by Wong to set up a NT$200 billion fund to revive farm
villages.
The KMT caucus was forced to negotiate with Wong to resolve the matter. He said
he believed the government must set aside more money to take care of
construction projects within farm villages.
Wong, who represents a Chiayi County constituency, said he feared the bill would
let residents of the county down.
He later agreed to put the bill to a second and third reading after the KMT
caucus proposed an additional resolution to allow the council to request an
additional NT$50 billion budget 10 years after the fund is established.
The bill had been tabled since December 2008, with the DPP and a number of civic
groups accusing the KMT of using the bill to buy electoral support.
DPP legislators did not vote on the bill yesterday because the entire DPP caucus
walked out of the provisional session on Friday after the legislature refused to
refer the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) to an
article-by-article review.
After the farm bill cleared the floor, Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Wu-hsiung
(陳武雄) told a KMT caucus press conference that the act would benefit 4,000 farm
villages nationwide.
Before going into recess yesterday, KMT lawmakers did not pass a proposed
amendment to reform the National Health Insurance (NHI) system, but referred it
to further cross-party negotiation.
The Taiwan Rural Front yesterday condemned the passage of the Farm Villages
Revival Act.
“We are angry,” the group’s spokeswoman, Tsai Pei-hui (蔡培慧), told the Taipei
Times by telephone. “This bill does nothing to improve the most important thing
that concerns farmers — the farming and selling of agricultural produce.”
Most of the money would be spent on improving tourism infrastructure, such as
biking trails, she said.
“It’s like spending money to repaint the outside of a house when the roof is
leaking,” Tsai said.
She is also worried that regular agricultural budgets may be used to improve
infrastructure irrelevant to agricultural production since the bill did not
specify where the NT$150 billion farming villages rejuvenation fund would come
from.
“And there’s no mechanism to monitor the use of the money either, leaving space
for mishandling of the fund,” Tsai said.
Farmer and farmers’ rights activist Yang Ru-men (楊儒門) said it was no longer
important what bills get passed.
“What’s more important is to raise awareness among farmers, and help farmers
establish their own marketing channels,” Yang said. “If we farmers don’t stand
up on our own, it’s hard for others to help.”
At a separate setting, DPP lawmakers urged their KMT colleagues to show
restraint in passing the farm bill, saying that it needed more careful
consideration.
Despite sitting out of the session, DPP Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) said the
lack of consensus on the bill, even among KMT lawmakers, was the first sign that
it should be studied further.
“We have many concerns on this bill and the [KMT] should not attempt to pass it
without first achieving consensus,” she said, adding that a number of
agricultural organizations have also raised questions about the law’s possible
impact on the industry.
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