Hundreds of farmers from across the country yesterday staged a rally in Taipei to protest against the government’s “arbitrary regulations” that deprive them of their right of abode and their livelihood.
The parade started from the Council of Agriculture’s Forestry Bureau and ended at Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office.
Holding banners that read: “Give us back our land,” the protesters, many of whom were elderly farmers, appealed to the government to allow them to continue growing fruit and crops on the land that they have cultivated for years, instead of restraining their right of abode by designating these areas as national parks.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Tseng Te-tsung (曾得總), general-director of the parade and chairperson of Taiwan Original Cultivation Farmers’ Association, said many of the farmers and their families had been farming their lands since the Japanese colonial era (from 1895 to 1945) or long before that.
However, when the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government took over from the Japanese colonial government, it arbitrarily designated large tracts of the land as national parks and placed them under state ownership, Tseng said.
A fruit farmer surnamed Chen (陳) from Greater Kaohsiung’s Tianliao District (田寮) said: “We farmers don’t ask for a wealthy life, but when the government takes our land, it not only deprives us of our possessions, but also puts us out of work.”
Chen accused the government of violating the Constitution, which guarantees protection of people’s right of habitation and livelihood.
He added that the government should assist self-farming land owners and people who live on the land when planning and redistributing land resources.
Many farmers don’t understand the law that protects their rights and many were not given the chance to apply and register for ownership over the land, he said.
Many farmers are only allowed to temporarily rent the farmlands that they have been living on for decades, he said.
A fruit farmer surnamed Tsai (蔡), having been forced to tear down many parts of his house already, said he was recently fined another NT$120,000 for occupying state-owned property.
He said the government has been bullying farmers for many years, but all they ask for is the legitimacy to continue farming and living on the land.
The farmers urged the government to rethink its land redistribution policy instead of arbitrarily driving out those who have lived on the land for years or accusing them of breaking the law.
Taiwan Solidarity Union Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝), who took part in the protest, said the government was wrong to dispossess farmers of the land and prosecute them for occupying state land.
“If these cases continue to happen, it will only generate hatred among the people,” he said.
In a statement released last night, the Forestry Bureau said: “The management of national parks and related measures will be modified in consideration of the farmers.”
“Standard acts of changing national parks into private land will be discussed with other related government agencies,” it added.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
ENTERTAINERS IN CHINA: Taiwanese generally back the government being firm on infiltration and ‘united front’ work,’ the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association said Most people support the government probing Taiwanese entertainers for allegedly “amplifying” the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda, a survey conducted by the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association showed on Friday. Public support stood at 56.4 percent for action by the Mainland Affairs Council and the Ministry of Culture to enhance scrutiny on Taiwanese performers and artists who have developed careers in China while allegedly adhering to the narrative of Beijing’s propaganda that denigrates or harms Taiwanese sovereignty, the poll showed. Thirty-three percent did not support the action, it showed. The poll showed that 51.5 percent of respondents supported the government’s investigation into Taiwanese who have
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of