Several legal experts yesterday called on the Council of Agriculture (COA) to withdraw the proposed farming community recovery bill from legislative review, saying it may be unconstitutional and violates human rights.
The bill, submitted to the legislature last year by the Executive Yuan and passed during an initial review in December, aims to “revive and create prosperous farming communities.”
However, some lawyers have expressed doubt that the bill could accomplish its goals and consider some of its clauses unconstitutional.
“The farming community recovery bill has nothing to do with reviving farming communities — it’s purely a land development project,” said Lee Chung-hsi (李崇僖), law professor at Chungyuan Christian University.
“It also seeks legalization of acts befitting gangsters, such as taking farmland away from individual farmers for development,” Lee said, adding that it went against the right to property protected by the Constitution.
Lee said the bill deals with the redevelopment of farmland, the construction of recreational facilities, such as bicycle lanes, and beautifying farming villages. A clause in the bill states that a redevelopment project may be executed in an area as long 60 percent of people who own land in that area agree to it, even if the owners of the other 40 percent object to it. Another clause says that if the government finds a building in a farming village too ugly, it can order the owner to improve it. If the owner doesn’t follow the order within a specified time limit, the government can renovate the structure without the owner’s consent and then ask the owner to pay for it.
“Who is to define what’s ‘ugly’ and what’s ‘beautiful?’ How can the government ‘improve’ the appearance of a privately owned house and ask the owner to pay for it?” asked Tsai Ya-ying (蔡雅瑩), a lawyer affiliated with the Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association. “This is a violation of human rights.”
“Not everyone has the money to pay when the government demands it,” said Thomas Chan (詹順貴), another lawyer. “So I guess this is what would happen: People would have their houses repaired involuntarily by the government, they have no money to pay for it, so the government seizes the property and puts it up for auction.”
“How scandalous would it be if you lost your home because the government thinks it looks ugly?” Chan asked.
Chan went on to say that the bill provides neither a platform for farmers to voice their opinions before a development project starts, nor a channel to file their complaints.
“The COA should just take it [the bill] back,” Chan said.
When asked for comment, COA Minister Chen Wu-hsiung (陳武雄) did not address the questions raised by the legal experts, but stressed that the bill would benefit farmers and promised that the council would offer more in-depth elaboration on the bill at a legislative public hearing to be held today.
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