“Political affiliations do not matter in Miaoli County and should not matter, as the residents should place more emphasis on what is right and what is wrong,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wu Yi-chen (吳宜臻) said about her prospects in the Miaoli county commissioner election.
The county is considered a pan-blue powerhouse because the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has a larger voting base in the county than the DPP.
In a recent interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper), Wu said that many of the more senior KMT legislators in the county are on the “watch lists” of civic groups over their legislative performance — deemed poor by the groups — while she has been rated No. 1 or No. 2 several times by the civic groups for her performance as a legislator.
Wu added that although she has had limited interaction with Miaoli County in the past, she is certain that her vision for Miaoli’s development and her feelings for the county would be felt by residents.
Citing the Dapu Incident as an example, Wu said that if she were elected as commissioner, she would implement deliberative democratic systems when dealing with construction projects, so residents could participate in decision-making process.
The Dapu Incident refers to the Miaoli County Government’s seizure of farmland to expand the Jhunan science park by blocking off roads and sending excavators into farms that were awaiting harvest.
On July 18 last year, four houses in Dapu Borough (大埔) in Jhunan District (竹南) were demolished against the will of their owners to make way for the project. The incident is considered to have led to the death of the owner of the Chang Pharmacy, Chang Sen-wen (張森文).
It remains unclear whether Chang committed suicide.
“The power of the government is bestowed by the people and the government has the obligation to communicate its decisions to the people,” Wu said.
Public construction was not simply something that a county commissioner felt must be done, without consulting the residents, and the county government could not use its powers to tear down houses and destroy fields.
“The county government would endeavor to persuade the people to agree with it on proposed projects and it would not move forward without any regard for public will” if she were elected, Wu added.
Regarding reports that, on average, county residents are each NT$701,446 in debt, Wu said that the Control Yuan had reported incidents in which county governments often “worked the accounts” and reported false income numbers to when asking for more funding and a higher ceiling for raising debt.
These measures have caused local finances to deteriorate to near-bankruptcy, Wu said, adding that while other county governments were starting to rein in their actual expenditure, Miaoli County was still claiming it made more than it did.
“County finances are a priority issue that must be solved,” Wu said, adding that development of tourism-based activities to increase the tax base, as well as decreasing taxation to encourage investment in small and medium-sized enterprises were all options.
Wu also said social welfare policies and education policies needed to be cut back and replaced by publicly funded daycare or senior citizen homes to solve the county’s problem of caring for the two groups.
“The county needs to focus on tourism-related activities, as it holds great potential, being right between the mountains and the sea,” Wu said.
Wu said that investment in the small and medium-sized enterprises would boost job rates and encourage young people to stay in the region.
In addition, arranging for microloans for entrepreneurship, establishing brands for agricultural and aquaculture products and developing a diverse educational policy are areas that she would focus on if elected, the lawmaker said.
Encouraging the younger generation to stay in the county and have jobs and allowing the elderly to have ample medical coverage and care has been a staple of her work in the legislature for the past two years, Wu said.
These policies would form the blueprint for the future development of Miaoli County should she be elected, she said.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
RSS