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Farmers rally in Taipei to protest land
seizures
By Loa Iok-sin
STAFF REPORTER
Sunday, Jul 18, 2010, Page 1
“I feel sad to be here today, seeing how these farmers are suffering.”— Lee Tien-pei, Losheng Self-Help Association chairman
Four participants in a protest by farmer
self-help associations from around Taiwan speak on stage last night as part of
an overnight sit-down protest outside the Presidential Office.
PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
There was music and cries, laughter and tears, placards and banners as more than
2,000 people — including farmers, farming activists and their supporters —
protested on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office last night,
voicing their opposition to a series of recent land takeovers by the government.
“Farmers from Dapu [大埔], raise your hands! Farmers from Wanbao [灣寶], raise your
hands! Farmers from Erchongpu [二重埔], raise your hands! Farmers from Jhubei [竹北],
raise your hands! Farmers from Siangsiliao [相思寮], raise your hands! Farmers from
Tucheng [土城], raise your hands!” called out Taiwan Rural Front spokeswoman Tsai
Pei-hui (蔡培慧).
The farmers raised their hands as their village was called, while the rest of
the crowd cheered and applauded.
Farmers from Dapu Borough in Jhunan Township (竹南) and Wanbao Borough in Houlong
Township (後龍), both in Miaoli County, Jhubei City (竹北), Erchongpu in Hsinchu
County's Jhudong Township (竹東), Siangsiliao in Changhua County's Erlin Township
(二林) and Taipei County’s Tucheng (土城), gathered in front of the Presidential
Office last night as all these communities have faced, or may be facing, land
expropriation by the government in order to make way for various development
projects.
Although farmers across the country have been fighting land expropriation for
years, their campaign did not gain much public attention until the Miaoli County
Government last month sent in excavators escorted by police to dig up rice
paddies in Dapu.
Images and video clips of what took place in Dapu were quickly spread via the
Internet and media outlets, shocking the public.
“The government is not protecting our interests as it should be, instead it only
cares about the interests of large corporations,” Erchongpu farmer Liu
Ching-chang (劉慶昌) told the crowd. “One village alone is not powerful enough, we
farmers across the country must stand in solidarity to fight for our rights.”
Dozens of civic groups joined the farmers in their struggle.
“I feel sad to be here today, seeing how these farmers are suffering,” Losheng
Self-Help Association chairman Lee Tien-pei (李添培) said. “The police surrounded
Dapu and destroyed the farms, just like how the police surrounded Losheng
Sanatorium and demolished buildings two years ago.”
The Losheng Sanatorium was built in the 1930s in Taipei County to isolate
patients with Hansen's disease, more commonly known as leprosy. A large part of
the sanatorium campus was flattened to make way for a mass rapid transit
maintenance depot despite a years-long campaign against the plan.
Former Council of Agriculture minister Tai Chen-yao (戴振耀), who is also a
long-time farmers’ rights activist, was in the crowd.
“The land expropriations nowadays are the same as they were decades ago, the
government's mentality has never changed,” he said. “They think industry is
better than agriculture in terms of production value, but they’re not factoring
in farmers’ rights to survival, to live and to work, as well as the positive
contributions of farms to the environment.”
Some people in cars that drove by cheered for the farmers, while donations
continued to pour in.
“I’ve donated NT$2,000 because I think farmers are suffering too much, they
shouldn't be treated this way,” a woman said right after putting in two NT$1,000
bills into the donation box.
A number of bands and artists also expressed their support through their
performances.
The demonstrators stayed out overnight on Ketagalan Boulevard.
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