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Pan-greens must think beyond the
elections
BY CHANG SHIH-HSIEN ±i¥@½å
Just as the campaigning for the special municipality elections was getting into
full swing, Taiwan was hit by Typhoon Fanapi, causing severe flooding in the
south. This should not have come as much of a surprise, given the wake-up call
we had only last year with the devastation wrought by Typhoon Morakot.
In 2005, the pan-green camp asked for a review of a national land restoration
act. The pan-blue camp, concerned that the act might stifle business, blocked
it, despite the increasing vulnerability of excessively developed areas to
natural disasters. On one level, the flooding was not entirely unwelcome for the
pan-blue camp, since they could use it to direct disaster victims¡¦ anger toward
the pan-green camp.
The pan-blue groups collude to serve their own interests and are unlikely to
care about protecting the land or looking out for the public good. If they had
their say, it is unlikely that flood control projects, such as the Yuan Shan Tzu
diversion of the Keelung River, would have gone ahead.
With the pan-blue camp, it is an endless soap opera of corruption and
vote-rigging. Examples are rife: Miaoli County Commissioner Liu Cheng-hung (¼B¬FÂE)
sending in the bulldozers in the dead of night to destroy crops and dig up land
belonging to local farmers, and the alleged bribing of High Court judges by
former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator and Miaoli County commissioner
Ho Chih-hui (¦ó´¼½÷), to name but a few.
After the latest typhoon, the pan-green camp should make it known that the KMT
has obstructed land restoration and sat idly by as the nation continues to
slide.
It is high time the rot was rooted out. At the same time, the pan-green camp
should give some serious thought to what it is going to do to redress the damage
done should the public give the pan-blue camp another chance in government.
The pan-greens need to provide answers as to what they are going to do about the
corrupt civil service; how they are going to help Taiwanese get back the natural
greenery and cultivated land wrested from the public by fat cats and
bureaucrats; and how they are to deal with the overdeveloped, heavily polluted
environment.
According to the dissident Chinese writer Yuan Hongbing (°K¬õ¦B), writing in his
Taiwan Grand State Strategies, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sees this
country as a stepping stone to the rest of the world, which explains why it
wants to gain control of Taiwan.
The CCP has used a cocktail of contrivances ¡X part of ¡§unrestricted warfare¡¨ ¡X
to manipulate the situation in Taiwan to ensure the KMT wins the next
presidential election, which the CCP hopes will smooth the process of
unification.
That said, even if the KMT loses, that would not necessarily mean it would forgo
all political control. It would still be possible for the CCP and KMT to stir up
trouble. They might even orchestrate a situation legitimizing China¡¦s use of its
¡§Anti--Secession¡¨ Law and launch a military attack on Taiwan.
Whoever wins the 2012 presidential election is going to be put to the test, and
a severe one at that.
The 2012 presidential election is going to be a telling time for Taiwan, and
even if the pan-green camp wins, it cannot rest on its laurels. Now that the
Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) is in effect, things will only
get worse, and Taiwanese will have to deal with increasingly severe natural
disasters exacerbated by global climate change.
The pan-greens should think beyond the elections and consider the challenges of
the future. If the pan-green camp is not prepared, it will waste the
opportunity.
Chang Shih-hsien is a member of the Northern Taiwan Society.
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