August 25, 2010
by Robin Winkler
I was born in the US, and while I may be what most Taiwanese think of as a typical foreigner, the criticisms of how the “American way of life,” based as it is on excessive consumption and squandering of the world’s resources have long resonated with me. This has led me to spend most of the past 35 years in Taiwan, where upon arrival I was immediately taken by the people’s attitudes toward resources, attitudes that might be laughed at in my home country.
I first came to Taiwan in 1977, and saw how in many households family members would take turns to bathe in the same tub of water and then use it to water the flowers or mop the floor. When it came to using electric lights, people were careful to the point of stinginess. It was this energy-saving “Taiwanese way of life,” necessitated by the financial constraints of the time, that helped me fall in love with this place and its people.
Later and sadly for me however, as our economy took off, Taiwan blindly strived to achieve just the kind of American lifestyle that I had rejected. The result today is that the average amount of carbon dioxide emissions per person in Taiwan is three times the global average, and Taiwan’s emissions keep growing faster than anywhere else.
The sad thing is that when it comes to those American values that Taiwan **should** adopt, many people have not learned them thoroughly, carefully or properly, and people in leading positions who have studied abroad – mostly in the US – are often the first to betray those values. In Western societies, including the US, people take great care to abide by and uphold the rule of law. Government departments, in particular, are particularly attentive not to be seen as undermining the rule of law. It is a different matter in Taiwan. President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) received a doctorate in juridical science from Harvard University, but when serving as mayor of Taipei City he trampled the rule of law underfoot by refusing to pay the city’s National Health Insurance contribution arrears, as demanded by the Cabinet. His refusal continued after court decisions and even after an interpretation of the Council of Grand Justices ruled against his administration.
In a classic “follow the leader” Premier and former legislator Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) dismissed as “dark clouds” and “hocus pocus” a court decision ordering a halt to construction work on the Cising Farm (七星農場) extension of the Central Taiwan Science Park. It’s hard to decide whether to laugh or cry at such comments. Wu’s Cabinet team then willfully twisted the court’s decision, claiming that it meant the science park’s management administration would have to suspend its construction work (停工) but private corporations AU Optronics (友達) and Sunner Solar (旭能) could keep on operating(不停產). Then jumping into the fray comes Environment Minister Stephen Shen (沈世宏), who went even further, saying in emotive outbursts that “the court will pay the price” and claiming “judicial interference in environmental impact assessment matters”. Minister Shen has also busied himself with obfuscation tactics, spending endless hours penning newspaper articles berating the courts for their decisions and otherwise distracting readers from the substantive issues. This sort of behavior does raise questions on citizenship requirements for countries such as Canada.
The executive agencies ignore the laws passed by the legislature, and when the judiciary finds the executive agencies in violation of the law, the executive agencies spit on the courts’ decisions. How can we allow the legislature and judiciary to be treated by the Executive in this manner?
Through its actions, Taiwan’s government is gradually eroding and dismembering two fundamental values of Western societies – the separation of powers and the rule of law. We have been led to believe that these are core values for Taiwan, regardless of whether the Chinese KMT or the DPP is in the Executive. Having been educated in law in the US, I am both amazed and baffled by this trend. Ma’s governing team includes several ministers who studied in the US. These “counterfeit foreign devils” may speak fluent English, but when you look below the surface they seem more like students returning from China. To be fair perhaps we should note that while the principles of separation of powers and rule of law have been dominant in American thinking for over 200 years, we have only really had an opportunity to test these principles in Taiwan for the past twenty years or so.
But what really baffles me is where is the voice of Taiwan’s legal community in in the face of such brash abuse of process to the extent of bringing on a constitutional crisis. What accounts for the silence while the government proceeds with this systematic trashing of the law? In a country where legal scholars and professors are given so much reverence and stature, the rule of law needs you, the country needs you. Speak out!
Robin Winkler is chair of the Environmental Jurists Association and a former environmental impact assessment commissioner with the Environmental Protection Agency (2005-2007).
TRANSLATED BY JULIAN CLEGG
July 05, 2010
For the last three months, MFCU and other NGOs have been asking members of the public to pledge money to collectively buy 200 hectares of land along the Changhua County coast, where Kuo Kuang Petrochemical Technology Corp. hopes to 'reclaim' over 4000 hectares of important wetlands on which to build oil refineries. (See Taipei Times article and film overview containing images of the proposed reclamation.)
More than 26 000 people have now pledged money for more than 1.3 million shares, which were priced at only NT$119 (~UD$4) each (119 is the phone number for emergency services in Taiwan).
On 6 and 7 July (Tuesday and Wednesday this week) we* will hold two public events as we collect final pledges and deliver our land trust application to the Ministry of the Interior.
Event details and how you can take part:
FIRST EVENT: 6 JULY 2010
On 6 July (Tues) we will parade past the Presidential Palace holding written messages from those who have pledged money, to ask President Ma to make good on his 2008 election promise to promote the use of environmental trusts to protect the environment. We will also hold a press conference.
We would like to invite all those who have already pledged money to join us in displaying these messages, which will also carry the names and numbers of shares of those who have pledged money – no other personal details will be printed on the forms!
When: Gather at 9.15 am on 6 July 2010 (Tuesday)
Where: Taipei Guest House, No 1 Ketagalan Boulevard, Jhongjheng District, Taipei (at the Ketagalan Boulevard/Gongyuan Rd intersection).
Who is invited: All those who have pledged to buy shares, and anyone else who would like to come along and make a pledge on the day or online now. Non-Taiwanese nationals in Taiwan and abroad can also make pledges, so please invite your non-Taiwanese friends to help save these wetlands!
What’s the plan:
1. 9.15 am: arrive at the meeting place promptly
2. 9.30 am: action starts, all hold up the pledge name list, then walk together along Ketagalan Boulevard to the Presidential Palace
Tips:
-Feel free to be creative and design your own slogans, paste/paint them to your body, or dress up like a pink dolphin or another coastal/wetland species!
-Remember to bring drinking water and wet weather clothes if you think you might need them
-Traffic at the site can be busy, please take care!
SECOND EVENT: 7 JULY 2010
On 7 July (Wed) we will present our application for the Jhuoshuei Wetlands Public Land Trust to the Ministry of the Interior and hold a second press conference. This will be the first time in Taiwan's history that the public will have collectively applied to buy land from the government in order to protect it. In this historic moment, we need as many people as possible who have pledged to buy shares to come and bear witness, and join us as we present the application to the government.
When: Gather at 10 am on 7 July 2010 (Wednesday)
Where: Ministry of the Interior, Central United Office, No. 5 Xuzhou Rd, Taipei City
Who’s invited: Everyone who has pledged to buy shares, and their families.
What’s the plan:
1. Gather at the meeting place at 10 am
2. Write down your hopes, wishes, blessings or other thoughts for the waterbirds, dolphins, oyster farmers and all others who depend on the Jhuoshuei Wetlands for survival.
3. Take part in a simple ceremony to wish well to all of the above (2)
4. 11.09 am (sticking with the 119 theme!) Together bear witness as an official from the Ministry of the Interior comes out to receive Taiwan’s first ever environmental trust application.
Tips:
-Remember to take drinking water and wet weather clothes
-If you have kids, bring them along!
If you can come to one or both of these events, please write to us with your full name, number of people in your group and tell us which event(s) you can attend, so that we can estimate numbers.
Contact:
Miss Wu of the Taiwan Environmental Information Center (the NGO that is managing the trust application)
Email: landcrab0105@gmail.com
*NGOs participating in the land trust campaign:
Changhua County Environmental Protection Union, Taiwan Environmental Protection Union, Taiwan Environmental Information Center, Society of Wilderness, Matsu's Fish Conservation Union, Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association, Changhua Coast Conservation Action.
June 25, 2010
Time: 25 June 2010 1330 press conference, 1400 shareholders meeting
Place: Sunworld Dynasty Hotel, 2F No 100 Tunhua S Rd Taipei (northeast corner of Tunhua and Nanjing intersection formerly Asiaworld)
As international society attaches more and more importance to corporate social responsibility the appearance of “green shareholders” has become a common phenonmena. During Formosa Plastics’ 2000 Annual shareholders meeting, FPG’s founder Y.C. Wang engaged in a heated debate with these green shareholders but within one week of the meeting the infamous mercury-tainted toxic waste [that Formosa had attempted to illegally ship to Kampuchea] was taken from the Kaohsiung Harbour to FPG’s factory; while at the 2006 shareholders meeting the main topic was the failure of FPG’s steel plant project to make any headway with the environmental impact assessment.
This year the green shareholders will point out the groundwater contamination levels around FPG’s PVC factory in Kaohsiung’s astounding feat of achieving more than three hundred thousand times the legal standard, the soaring cancer rates around FPG’s Sixth Naphtha Cracker offshore facility in Yunlin County, central Taiwan, and how FPG is going to deal with competition from the Kuokuang Petrochemical Park planned for neighboring Changhua County, as well as environmental and safety concerns over its plant in Point Comfort Texas.
More than ten victims of FPG’s polluting plants at home and abroad have obtained shares or proxies in order to have standing to attend the shareholders meeting. Among these stakeholders the two who have drawn the most attention are LIN Jin-lang, an aquaculture farmer trying to make a living next to the Sixth Naphtha Cracker in Yunlin County, and fourth generation shrimper and environmental activist Diane Wilson who has witnessed the ravaging of her home and devastation of the fishing industry by the neighboring FPG plant in Point Comfort.
Media reports on 24 June stated that “Formosa Plastics is geared up in full battle array in what is the highest level in its 56 year history”. The green shareholders believe that they and proxies of green shareholders should all be able to join the meeting and have taken a vow to fight to the death to get Diane Wilson into the meeting so that the Wang family and the management can confront the social and environmental devastation they and their companies have wrought on Taiwan and around the world and to also make the shareholders aware of the dangers of investing in FPG..
Diane, surrounded by a group of local Taiwan activist “unreasonable women” will present the 2009 “Black Planet Award” that the German Foundation ”ethecon - Foundation Ethics & Economics” in Berlin Germany gave to FPG last year. The award was for the particularly dismal and irresponsible performance in the areas of environmental and social responsibility by the recipients, the family of Y.C. Wang, the Chairman of Formosa Plastics Mr. Lee Chih-tsun, and all executive management of the Formosa Plastics Group.
After 20 years, Formosa Plastics retains its position as “leader of the Earth’s social and environmental poisoners and polluters”.
We welcome all media and other interested parties!
Participants: Calhoun County Resource Watch and Injured Workers United, Yunlin County Shallow Waters Agua-culture Association, Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association Taiwan, Green Party Taiwan, Green Formosa Front, Mercy on the Earth Taiwan, Taiwan Envirornmental Action Network, Taiwan Academy of Ecology Taipei Branch, Changhua Environmental Protection Union
Press contacts: Green Party Taiwan PAN Hansheng 0935295815,panhan3@gmail.com
Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association 02-2382-5789 eco@wildatheart.org.tw