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Ma heckled while visiting wetlands
HOW WOULD YOU LIKE IT?One protester asked the president if he would like it if
an oil refinery were built in Taipei City, while one said Ma should move to
Changhua
By Ko Shu-ling / Staff Reporter, with CNA
Environmental activists yesterday
stage a protest against the proposed construction project of the Kuokuang
Petrochemical Technology in Changhua County. Their placard reads “Wetlands and
petrochemicals cannot coexist.”
Photo: Chang Tsung-chiu, Taipei Times
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was heckled
yesterday on a highly guarded visit to a wetlands in Changhua County in which
Kuokuang Petrochemical Technology Co (國光石化科技) tentatively plans to build a
petrochemical complex.
In a milder protest than the one held on Sunday, in which Ma was prevented from
making a speech, one protester said he wanted to know how the president would
view the idea of building an oil refinery in Taipei City.
Another said Ma should move to Changhua to experience what life would be like in
an -environment like theirs.
Ma, whose visit yesterday was private, did not speak to protesters, nor did he
answer any questions from the media. He said he hoped to decide whether to build
the plant before the presidential election next year.
Ma was shouted down in -Changhua County on Sunday while attending a protest to
which he had been invited over the planned construction of the plant.
He angered protesters when he declined to sign a letter promising that he would
oppose the project. The protesters then prevented him from delivering a planned
speech with repeated chants demanding that he “step down.”
In the wake of the incident, the Presidential Office accused Lin Shih-hsien
(林世賢), an organizer of the rally, of lying about the -invitation terms for Ma to
speak at the rally.
Lin, who represented the Changhua Medical Professionals League, said the
organizers had informed the Presidential Office that if the president wanted to
speak at the rally, he had to sign a paper pledging his opposition to building
the Kuokuang complex.
He said he had an audiotape that could prove his communication with a
Presidential Office official about the terms by which political figures would be
allowed to go on stage to talk to rally participants.
His remarks surprised Lin Chi-min (林濟民), president of Fangyuan Township
Anti--pollution Association, which sent Ma an -invitation to the event.
Lin Chi-min said none of the organizers had asked the president to sign any
commitment in exchange for the right to speak at the rally.
He said leaders of the coalition of civic groups organizing the event had
discussed the “rules” for politicians going on the stage to speak at the rally,
and he had personally talked to the president about this.
“The president told me if he could speak to rally participants, that it would be
fine; but that if he could not, that would not matter either,” the association
president said.
Presidential Spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said the Presidential Office
received several invitations from different groups of the coalition from March
28 to last Friday, but at no time had the Presidential Office ever indicated
that Ma would like to speak to rally participants or would sign any paper
regarding the petrochemical project.
Lin Chi-min was the main -liaison with the Presidential Office and their
agreement was that Ma would respect the organizers’ arrangements during the
rally.
Lo said it was regrettable that Lin Shih-hsien had openly lied about the
so-called “conditions” for political figures to speak to rally participants.
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