In order to develop Jhunan Science Park, MiaoLi County government located in central Taiwan, plan to expropriate the farmland in Dapu.
[quote=“ynck”]In order to develop Jhunan Science Park, MiaoLi County government located in central Taiwan, plan to expropriate the farmland in Dapu.
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-466651[/quote]
Disgusting. Just another example of an oppressive government taking from one to give to another. I’l remember this the next time I read about the Taiwanese government’s respect for property rights.
Land gets expropriated all over the world. It sucks, but it’s hardly unique to Taiwan. It’s not always a bad thing, either. Without the government’s authority to make these things happen, can you imagine how har it would be to get highways, airports, railways, etc. built?
It’s a pity in this case that it’s for (yet another) useless science park, but there’s nothing inherently evil about the process. 
[quote=“Maoman”]Land gets expropriated all over the world. It sucks, but it’s hardly unique to Taiwan. It’s not always a bad thing, either. Without the government’s authority to make these things happen, can you imagine how har it would be to get highways, airports, railways, etc. built?
It’s a pity in this case that it’s for (yet another) useless science park, but there’s nothing inherently evil about the process. [/quote]This isn’t eminent domain this is expropriation. Eminent domain is for public benefit, but expropriation is for private benefit. I doubt your opinion would remain consistent if someone where to expropriate your place of business on the faith and promise of generating higher tax revenue.
[quote=“Maoman”]Land gets expropriated all over the world. It sucks, but it’s hardly unique to Taiwan. It’s not always a bad thing, either. Without the government’s authority to make these things happen, can you imagine how har it would be to get highways, airports, railways, etc. built?
It’s a pity in this case that it’s for (yet another) useless science park, but there’s nothing inherently evil about the process. [/quote]
Yes there is. The way you explain this away is disturbing man. You really think that because governments the world over disregard the property rights of the weak, in favor of the strong, that makes it ok? Are you really comparing a road or highway that is built for the public benefit to a factory that only benefits the owners and employees of the factory? There is something inherently evil about this. This company should have to buy the land at market rates. If they can’t afford it, too damn bad. How can you not agree that forcibly taking property for a private developer is wrong, but taking it for a highway is not?
Why another science park? What about the one outside Tainan that they can’t seem to fill with business?
This isn’t about filling business but the pockets of developers. This is about construction jobs to keep the workign class employed and voting blue. This is about graft and greed.
And anyway, if the facts stated in the report are correct, then the lands haven’t been expropriated, because the negotiations are not over. The land is being ‘prepared’. In that if you destroy the crops of the farmers at harvest time, they’ll be so busy fighting to survive that they won’t be able to assert their rights or fight for a fair price for their land. Totally and utterly unacceptable.
Can anyone confirm that the legal process isn’t over? Or that the parties involved were given fair treatment/chance to voice their opinions if it is? If either of these are the case, then it doesn’t matter two hoots who the construction of the science park benefits. It’s out of line.
The reality of who it benefits though, on which I am in total agreement with Mucha Man, leaves a decidedly unpleasant taste in the mouth.
Here’s the Taipei Times version of this news story, for what it’s worth.
[quote]Miaoli destroys farmland for science park
By Loa Iok-sin
STAFF REPORTER
Tuesday, Jun 29, 2010, Page 3
Despite a promise by the Presidential Office last week to help farmers in Jhunan Township (竹南), Miaoli County, who oppose a plan by the county government to take over their land to make room for a science park expansion project, the county government moved in excavators to dig up farmland in the area yesterday morning without notifying residents.
Several residents of Dapu Borough (大埔) in Jhunan, a farming village, have been campaigning against the Miaoli County Government’s plan, introduced in 2008, to take over their farmland to make way for the expansion of the Jhunan Science Park.
Dapu residents and their supporters held demonstrations in front of the Presidential Office and the Control Yuan on Wednesday asking for help, after excavators sent by the county government partially flattened the rice paddies of farmers who refused to give their land to the county government earlier this month.
At the time, the Presidential Office said it would look into the matter and reply to the residents within a week.
“Look at what the county government is doing now, even before a week has passed,” Dapu Self-Help Association spokeswoman Yeh Hsiu-tao (葉秀桃) told the Taipei Times by telephone.
At about 9am, close to 100 police officers were dispatched to block off roads to Dapu. Soon afterward, excavators moved into rice paddies that had been partially destroyed earlier this month.
“This time, they flattened everything, trucked away mud and rice plants, and turned the farms into a big construction site,” said Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷), a National Tsinghua University student who witnessed the scene.
A video clip shot and uploaded by a self-help association member showed police officers trying to prevent the farmers from getting to their land and taking away those who insisted on doing so.
“One woman was taken in a police car and released somewhere on the coast kilometers away from the village,” Chen said.
Huang Chih-chun (黃智群), deputy director of the county government’s Economic Development Department, said the government’s action were “completely legal.”
“We completed the process of transferring land ownership in February, so now the land is under the name of the county government,” Huang said. “They shouldn’t have planted rice on county government land in the first place.”
Although many landowners have yet to turn in land ownership certificates to the county government, the county government said it had completed the legal process for taking over the land, and that compensation had already been transferred to an account from which the Dapu farmers could withdraw whenever they wanted. [/quote]
Seeing so many police standing around that field makes me pretty angry. The Miaoli government is run by gangsters but this is what happens when you sell you votes to politicians. In the end though it’s up to villagers to stand up together…I don’t see it happening as usual, the majority just take the payouts. There is no need to expand that park, there are empty parks all over Taiwan. I can see the same thing happening in Taichung now, the 2nd Central Taiwan Park, the 3rd Central Taiwan Park etc.
Word…
“Forget about it Jake…Its Chinatown”
This is the KMT all over. Bunch of lying gangsters and thugs. Mind oyu, they’re all politicians. You can’t trust 'em to be good at anything except as fertiliser.
It turns out it was all an unfortunate misunderstanding:
Here’s a video which includes statements by Premier Wu and County Commissioner Liu:
youtube.com/watch?v=mlxWrF3JthQ
Considering the financial benefits that a science park brings, I can easily see why some people would feel it’s high time a new one was built in Miaoli County: [quote]. . . in 2001, a district court sentenced [Her Jy-huei / Ho Chi-hui] to 19 years in prison and a fine of NT$220 million for corruption involving the development of a Hsinchu Science Park affiliate in Tunglo, Miaoli County. He reportedly misused his position to persuade the authorities to subsidize a company to the tune of NT$3.2 billion, allegedly pocketing significant bribes in the process. In a major twist last May, the Taiwan High Court pronounced Her not guilty. [/quote]–“Former legislator on the run while judges and prosecutor kept in detention,” Formosa News, July 14, 2010
This is the KMT all over. Bunch of lying gangsters and thugs. Mind oyu, they’re all politicians. You can’t trust 'em to be good at anything except as fertiliser.[/quote]
Su Tseng-chang and Tsai Ing-wen also might want to explain their policies on the matter during their tenures as premier and vice premier under the DPP administration, during which the project passed its environmental impact assessment despite protests by local residents, which led to a lawsuit by the farmers. The High Administrative Court annulled the assessment two and a half years ago, but the DPP administration refused to suspend the project and filed an appeal.
This is the DPP all over. Bunch of lying gangsters and thugs. What’s worse is that they’re so utterly inept, you can hardly even grace them with the title of “politician.”