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Public challenges
developer after it sues Wangs, girl
SUE US: The company filed a slander lawsuit
against a student for criticizing it, causing hundreds of people to copy her on
Facebook, asking that they be sued, too
By Loa Iok-sin / Staff reporter
Wang Kuang-shu, left, owner of
two houses that were demolished to make way for a new apartment complex in
Taipei’s Shilin District on March 28, sits on a mattress along with his wife,
son and daughter amid rubble at the building site yesterday.
Photo: Huang Chi-hao, Taipei Times
Hundreds of people — including film
director Leon Dai (戴立忍) — have challenged Le Young Construction (樂揚建設) to sue
them after the company filed a slander lawsuit against a Taipei National
University of the Arts (TNUA) student.
The student, Huang Hui-yu (黃慧瑜), posted a comment critical of the firm’s actions
surrounding an urban renewal project on her Facebook page.
“To Le Young Construction, the following remark, in quotation marks, is exactly
the same as the comment that TNUA student Huang Hui-yu wrote on her Facebook
page,” Tai said on his own Facebook page.
“I’ve heard that your respected company has filed a slander lawsuit against
Huang for the remark. If this is so, please also file a slander lawsuit against
me, thank you,” he wrote.
Huang, a graduate student at the TNUA and a member of the Taiwan Alliance for
Victims of Urban Renewal, criticized several construction firms that have
initiated urban renewal projects — including Le Young — as “notorious” and
hinted they have connections to the mafia.
Le Young Construction, which labels itself as “the No. 1 brand in urban
renewal,” is the initiator of the urban renewal project in Taipei City’s Shilin
District (士林), which involves demolishing a block of decades-old apartments to
make way for a 15-story high-rise luxury housing complex.
Although most of the property owners on the block agreed to the project, a
family surnamed Wang (王) that owned two homes there refused to take part and
wanted to keep their homes.
However, because the Wangs did not express their objections in writing in the
project’s initial phase and because more than 75 percent of the property owners
on the block agreed to the project, the Wangs’ homes were forcefully demolished
on March 28 by a demolition squad sent by the city government. The demolition
squad was escorted by more than 1,000 police officers.
According to the Urban Renewal Act (都市更新條例), the initiator of an urban renewal
project may ask the city government to demolish the properties of those who do
not wish to take part in the project, as long as three quarters of property
owners on the site agree to the project.
On March 28, about 400 people — many of them college students — rallied outside
the Wangs’ properties trying to stop the demolition. They were all removed by
force and arrested after physical clashes with the police.
Later on, protesters broke down the construction fence and returned to the site
where the Wangs’ homes once stood, and continued to protest.
Le Young last week filed lawsuits against Wang Kuang-shu (王廣樹), head of the Wang
family, for breaking the fence and against Huang over her criticism of the
company.
Immediately after Tai’s Facebook post, supporters of the Wangs launched an
activity on Facebook to post the same statement as Huang and Tai, challenging Le
Young to sue them as well.
“I can’t do anything with my friends in person to show support for the Wangs
since I’m not in Taipei, but it’s a way of expressing my support if I could also
be sued,” Benla Kuang (管中祥), an associate professor at National Chungcheng
University’s Department of Communications, said on his Facebook page.
Besides posting the statement to invite a lawsuit, Mickey Lin (林彥瑜), a junior
student at National Taiwan University’s Department of Politics, said she would
like to launch a fundraising drive to hire an attorney for Huang.
“If they [Le Young] crush the students in this battle, there would be less
students willing to stand up for injustices in society and more parents would
try to stop their children from taking part in public issues,” Lin said on
Facebook.
“Students are penniless and powerless, but we have a conscience and passion that
could touch many people,” she said.
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