Miners’ homes and insults
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Vice President William Lai’s (賴清德) old family home has come under relentless criticism. For years, Taiwanese have repressed their anger, only to realize that when giving knaves an inch, the powerful take a mile. Taiwanese are generous and willing to let go of the past. They do not want to harbor animosity. However, they have not forgotten the unfairness they suffered. They have had enough.
About 70 years ago, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was forced to relocate to Taiwan. Here, it built numerous military dependents’ villages for those who came along to settle down. Not only were they given houses, they were entitled to many benefits. Years later, the military dependents’ villages underwent reconstruction. Residents were offered new houses for free. Some of those new houses were worth tens of millions of New Taiwan dollars, paid for by Taiwanese taxes.
Taiwanese miners toiled and exchanged their lives for meager wages to support their families. Many built a small shack next to mining areas to live in.
After decades, those homes are dilapidated, but the miners who own them could not enjoy the same benefits given to military dependents’ village residents. Instead, miners have to make renovations out of their own pockets, and to add insult to injury, they are often accused of building illegal structures. Some vested interest groups have even mocked refurbished shacks and “checked-in” at locations in a sarcastic manner.
For decades, Taiwanese have contributed to Taiwan, and their contribution is by no means any less than those who came with the KMT. Taiwanese should not be treated as second-class citizens and miners should make themselves heard. Miners’ houses have stood around for decades. They are not “illegal structures.”
To the younger generations: If you do not know how Taiwanese were treated in the past; if you believe that Lai’s old home is an illegal structure, please ask your grandparents what they have been through. Your elders would tell you stories of injustice, unfairness and decades-long suffering.
Peng Jui-mei
Taipei
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