Unhappy with President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) inaction in helping to preserve the Lo Sheng Sanatorium despite earlier promises, preservation activists again staged a demonstration outside Ma’s residence — but they were completely ignored this time.
The activists, including Youth Alliance for Lo Sheng members, Lo Sheng residents and sympathizers arrived in front of Ma’s apartment in Taipei City’s Wenshan District (文山) around 6:30am without prior notice — most media organizations were given the information less than an hour before their action.
“Down with Ma’s bad check!” “Stop lying!” “Save Lo Sheng now!” they shouted as they sat on the sidewalk across the street from the apartment building where Ma lives.
The demonstrators, numbering around 50, were surrounded by dozens of civilian and military police officers, as well as agents from the National Security Bureau.
The sanatorium, located in Sinjhuang City (新莊), Taipei County, was built in 1930 during the Japanese colonial period to isolate patients of Hansen’s Disease — also known as leprosy — as it was believed to be highly contagious at the time.
A decision to demolish buildings of the sanatorium complex to make way for a Mass Rapid Transport (MRT) maintenance depot drew criticism from preservationists who think forced eviction of elderly former patients who have lived on the campus for decades is a violation of human rights, and that the demolition itself is a destruction of buildings with historic value.
After more than three years of struggle, the government made a concession last year and came up with a plan to preserve 40 buildings on the campus. However, the Department of Rapid Transport Systems would only guarantee the safety of 15 buildings during the construction.
Unable to get a positive response from government authorities, the preservationists turned to Ma and staged their first surprise demonstration in June.
At the time, Ma took about two minutes to talk to preservationists, accepted a petition letter and promised to “ask relevant government agencies to take care of it” before jumping into a car to head to work.
In fact, since the sanatorium is situated right on the border between Taipei and Taoyuan counties, Ma suggested during the presidential election that he would help negotiate to have the Sinjhuang MRT line extended to Taoyuan and build the maintenance depot there.
However, this time, when the activists returned to urge Ma to fulfill his promises, Ma chose to ignore them.
As the presidential convoy approached around 7:20am, an unidentified man, seemingly an officer, showed up and told the uniformed police at the scene to issue warnings to demonstrators and order them to leave.
While the man was engaged in a verbal dispute with the demonstrators and when all the attention was centered around the dispute, Ma appeared all of a sudden and quickly got into the car before leaving.
After Ma’s convoy drove away, the man also quickly walked away.
When approached by reporters, he declined to give his name or his occupation.
“We are here trying to ask for help from the president, but it’s disappointing that he didn’t even bother to talk to us,” Tang Ming-hsiang (湯明祥), a Lo Sheng resident, said afterwards.
“Ma said that he considers the protection of human rights an important issue, but what about our rights? One of the residents to be forcibly evicted is over 90 years old and has heart disease!” Lan Tsai-yun (藍彩雲), another resident, said. “I think I voted for the wrong person!”
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