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Wu, Jiang crack
surfaces over land expropriation
TIME: The interior minister said he would make
revising expropriation laws a priority, while the premier said the Cabinet would
not speed up the amendment process
By Loa Iok-sin / Staff Reporter
Differences emerged yesterday between Premier Wu Den-yih (§d´°¸q) and Minister of
the Interior Jiang Yi-huah (¦¿©y¾ì) on the urgency of revising the Land
Expropriation Act (¤g¦a¼x¦¬±ø¨Ò) following a weekend of protests by farmers and their
supporters.
Thousands of farmers and farmers¡¦ rights activists staged an overnight rally
against the law on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office over
the weekend, which ended yesterday morning.
Jiang yesterday said his ministry had submitted proposed revisions to the
Executive Yuan last month.
¡§The Ministry of the Interior is very concerned with justice in land use and the
reform of the land expropriation system, therefore we drafted revision proposals
¡X after hearing different opinions ¡X and sent them to the Executive Yuan on June
24,¡¨ Jiang said in a written statement. ¡§[The core ideas in the proposed
revisions] are the public¡¦s interests and necessity when it comes to taking over
private land.¡¨
Any legislation or legal revisions proposed by the ministry must first be
approved by the Executive Yuan before being referred to the legislature for
further review.
According to the ministry¡¦s proposed revisions, local governments or developers
applying for expropriation must clarify the public interests and necessity
involved in the development project to a review commission within the ministry.
In addition, all stakeholders ¡X including residents in the planned expropriation
area ¡X would be invited to speak at public hearings before an expropriation
application could be approved, the minister said.
Jiang said the ministry would prioritize revision of the act in the next
legislative session.
However, while the ministry seemed eager to amend the act, the premier was in
less of a rush.
¡§Revisions to the Land Expropriation Act are something that will have an impact
on public construction and thus cannot be done hastily,¡¨ Wu said yesterday. ¡§The
ministry has sent draft proposals to the Executive Yuan and we will bring
together all concerned ministries for further discussion.¡¨
¡§The Executive Yuan will not act hastily to speed up the amendment process and
we will not delay the process out of caution either,¡¨ Wu said.
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