Last week we issued an appeal here for President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to open his ears and listen to his people. Apparently, this call also fell on deaf ears, judging by his failure to meet with farmers who came to Taipei to plead their case.
Enraged by the Miaoli County Government’s seizure of their farmland, Dapu (大埔) farmers from the county’s Jhunan Township (竹南) camped outside the Presidential Office on Saturday night in the hope that the overnight demonstration would finally draw the president’s attention to their plight. Taking part in the sit-down protest were students, civic organizations and farmers from different parts of the country, who wanted to show their support for the Dapu farmers.
However, their fervor was met with rejection.
Citing prior engagements, Ma instructed the director of the Presidential Office’s Public Affairs Office, Chen Yung-feng (陳永豐), to receive the group’s appeal. Chen met the group for a mere two minutes.
Ma’s less-than-sincere show of concern was disheartening to say the least. Granted the president was preoccupied with meeting Lai In-jaw (賴英照), who had tendered his resignation as president of the Judicial Yuan, but couldn’t he spare at least five or 10 minutes to meet the protesters — especially considering that the farmers had camped out in the summer heat hoping that the president would listen, in person, to their plea? Surely the farmers would not have minded waiting another few hours for the chance to have a brief meeting with the president.
As Taiwan Rural Front spokeswoman Tsai Pei-hui (蔡培慧) poignantly put it: “When [Ma] visited farming villages during his presidential campaign, he was given a warm welcome and he received farmers’ votes. Now that the farmers have come knocking on his door to voice their opposition to the government forcibly taking their land, the president refuses to see them.”
Ma’s indifference to the farmers’ plea, which has been voiced since June 9 when the Miaoli County Government unexpectedly sent excavators to dig up their rice paddies in Dapu, stands in sharp contrast to the speed and efficiency he displayed in response to pan-blue supporter and writer Chang Hsiao-feng’s (張曉風) appeal in May.
One day after Chang knelt in front of TV cameras begging the government to reconsider its plan to turn a plot of land in Taipei City’s Nangang District (南港) into a biotech research park, Ma instructed Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) to take Chang’s appeal into consideration.
Ma was also swift to respond to reports in January that Chiang Mei-hua (江美華), a long-time Ma supporter, had lost her admiration for the president. Shortly after, Ma flew to Hualien and paid Chiang a special visit, resulting in Chiang saying the president was back on her list of idols.
While it’s comforting to see the president responding to concerns voiced by members of the public such as Chang and Chiang, his lack of response to the Dapu farmers’ appeal is disturbing, and leaves some wondering whether the president has selective hearing.
Being the head of the state means caring for the public well-being regardless of their political inclination. If Ma’s response is predicated on the assumption that the farmers are pan-green supporters, he is the one sowing the divide among Taiwanese and has failed to live up to his self-anointed title of the “people’s president” (全民總統).
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