Protecting the right to protest

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2016/01/27/2003638149

By Ho Yi  /  Taipei Times Staff reporter

Wang Chung-ming is arrested for protesting the removal of trees for a public construction project. Wang served a three-month jail sentence for clashing with police during the demonstration.

Photo: Lee Hsin-fang, Taipei Times

When Wang Chung-ming (王鐘銘) called on the government to halt the demolition of a military veterans community in 2013, he was charged with obstructing official duties because he scuffled with police. He was found guilty and sentenced to three months in jail.

Later that same year, the Green Party activist was arrested and sentenced to another three months in jail for clashing with police during a protest against the removal of trees for a public construction project.

“I was surprised to learn that I was found guilty,” Wang said of the court’s unusual decision to jail a protester. “Nobody saw it coming.”

Wang’s legal problems illustrate how authorities have used the law in recent years to suppress protests. Whereas police once relied on the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) to silence dissent, today they are employing other criminal charges to regulate protests. Legal activists have raised concern over police misusing the legal system, as a growing number of protesters are arrested and charged for acts as innocuous as throwing a piece of paper at the police during demonstrations.

LAW IN TRANSITION

Under the Assembly and Parade Act, protesters require permission in advance from the police for rallies and demonstrations. However, the law, created one year after martial law was lifted in 1987, does more to infringe on human rights than protect them.

“Although martial law ended almost 30 years ago, authoritarian thinking has survived Taiwan’s democratization. From the police to judges, the fundamental right to peacefully assemble is still deemed to be a threat to social order,” says Kao Yung-cheng (高涌誠), a human rights attorney and advocate.

A legal case in 2009 eventually led to the Council of Grand Justices to issue Constitutional Interpretation No. 718 last March, which ruled that provisions of the act are unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court’s interpretation has had a direct impact on police and prosecutors, who now rely on sections of the Criminal Code (刑法) — illegal entry into a building, obstructing official duties, insulting a public official — in an attempt to curb demonstrations.

Chen Yu-fan (陳雨凡), deputy executive director of the Judicial Reform Foundation (民間司法改革基金會), says that these laws are being used in an arbitrary and trivial manner.

Chen cites as an example the arrest of a student who threw the sleeve of a coffee cup at police during an anti-nuclear protest last April.

“A push or a nudge can lead to arrest for obstructing public duties. It is rather absurd to think that peaceful, unarmed demonstrators can pose a threat to large numbers of police and stop them from executing their duties,” Chen says.

In the study Criminal Risk Management for Assembly and Parade (集會遊行的刑事風險管理), human rights lawyer Tsai Ya-ying (蔡雅瀅) reveals that it is not only protesters who think the laws are absurd.

“Even the police officers I interviewed think... demonstrators are punished too harshly,” Tsai says.

UNDER PROSECUTION

Human rights activists worry that criminalizing protests will likely discourage and intimidate people from participating in public demonstrations.

“Not many people can handle the pressure of being tangled in litigation for a long time. I’ve seen students unable to study abroad because they have to go to court. It definitely has a coercive effect on protesters,” says Chen.

Chen gives as an example the Sunflower movement, a mass protest that began in March 2014 to stop the legislature from passing a contentious cross-strait service trade agreement. More than 200 students and activists were indicted for occupying the main legislative chamber and sieging the Executive Yuan.

Though legal activists expect a decrease in the number of arrests when president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) assumes office in May, Chen says the test will be in how police deal with protesters on the ground.

Hsu Jen-shou (許仁碩), a legal specialist from the Taiwan Association for Human Rights (台灣人權促進會), agrees, adding that the police and prosecutors have their own own “bureaucratic habits.”

“We will continue to monitor the new government and see if it makes policy decisions that respect the voice of the people, and if the Tsai-led Democratic Progressive Party will amend or abolish problematic laws,” Hsu says.

Wang started his second three-month sentence last month, following his imprisonment earlier this year associated with the tree-sitting protest on campus.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2016/01/27/2003638149

Profile: City council candidate Wang Chung-ming

Profile: City council candidate Wang Chung-ming
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2014/11/12/2003604220

By Ho Yi  /  Taipei Times Staff reporter

Environmentalist. Anti-nuclear proponent. Openly gay. The profile of Wang Chung-ming (王鐘銘) reads like a description of a real liberal. But that didn’t get him elected when the political hopeful first ran for the office of the city council in New Taipei City as a nominee of the Green Party Taiwan (GPT) in 2010.

“Four years ago, we told everybody that we were young, full of ideas and passion. And that we wanted to bring about real changes. But it was just empty talk,” the 35-year-old Wang says.

Real changes do not come from championing ideas, as the candidate has learned. A textbook-perfect political platform on environmental protection, sustainability and social justice will remain empty if it lacks knowledge gained from experiencing local ways of life.

Having spent the past four years getting to know locals, Wang decided to join the Nov. 29 nine-in-one elections this year and run for the 1st constituency in New Taipei City, which comprises the Shihmen (石門), Sanjhih (三芝), Bali (八里) and Tamsui (淡水) districts, for the second time.

FROM SLOGAN TO ACTION

Wang’s political enlightenment began in 2006 when he and several other bloggers and internet pundits helped out with the election campaign for the Green Party candidates for the office of city council. The fact that what he deemed a “very successful public relations campaign” didn’t get the candidates anywhere near the public office led Wang to conclude that cyber advocacy, as powerful as it may appear, doesn’t necessarily translate into votes. Shortly after, the then-art magazine editor joined the GPT.

In 2010, Wang was among the party’s five nominees to run for city council in Taipei. Agriculture appears at the highest level on his political agenda, and the environmental activist/novice candidate frequently took part in sit-ins and street demonstrations against several high-profile construction projects, including the Suhua Freeway (蘇花高速公路) and Tambei Expressway (淡北道路, Tamsui-Taipei Expressway). However, his street activism also drew criticism from fellow activists and NGO workers who thought that by concentrating only on issue-advocacy campaigns, Wang overlooked the importance of working with local residents and groups to gain a deeper understanding of their issues.

For the past four years, grassroots outreach has been a top priority for Wang, who says that after the 2010 election, residents in his constituency would often come to him, for problems ranging from disputes over tree-cutting to the preservation of an old street.

In 2012, Wang worked with local residents to organize the ongoing campaign against the Construction and Planning Agency’s proposed phase-II development of Tamhai New Town (淡海新市鎮) in Tamsui, which plans to seize about 1,200 hectares of land, with most of the targeted area being farmland, forcing more than 1,600 households to relocate. The experiences with grassroots organizing, handling bureaucracies and influencing policy process have helped Wang to break out of the realm of ideas and enter the real world.

“Before, I didn’t know how to make my way into the countryside. The case of Tamhai New Town has helped me to develop a support base in the suburban areas of Tamsui. With the locals, it is all about emotional bonding. If you help them, they will support you no matter what,” he says.

INTO THE PROVINCES

With its progressive political views and platform, the GPT has often been criticized for being unrealistic and appealing to a limited demographic that is mostly urban, highly educated and information-savvy. The result of Wang’s 2010 election clearly reflects the tendency. Out of the 8,321 votes Wang received, more than 7,000 came from Tamsui, the most urban among the four districts. According to Wang’s own analysis, he received a 5 to 10 percent average voting ratio in urban commercial districts. In smaller communities mainly consisting of old residential apartment buildings, the voting ratio is 5 percent. In rural areas, the figure drops to 2 to 3 percent, and sometimes less than 1.

Wang has discovered that attending local religious event is an important way to meet community leaders, whether it is during deity statues’ “inspection tours” (繞境), traditional pudu (普渡) ceremonies or temple festivities such as bandoh (辦桌), a type of Taiwanese outdoor banquet.

“When there is a temple pilgrimage or bandoh, I am there, shaking hands and introducing myself,” he says.

Door-knocking is another way to reach out — Wang has trekked through numerous villages, rural communities and hamlets, visiting one household at a time.

“In the city, we can probably reach out to 100 people in 10 minutes by making a public speech and handing out flyers,” the candidate said. “In the countryside, I ride my bike for an hour, and there are only 20 households along the roadside. It takes a lot more time. But it allows me to not only meet with local residents but learn about their communities and what they think.”

The visits have helped Wang and his team to gain a better understanding of the various cultures, environments and sociopolitical compositions in different areas. Take Shihmen for example — though Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant is located there, anti-nuclear activists have had limited luck in garnering support from local residents. This is because it is a relatively affluent area where inhabitants are mostly seniors, as the majority of youth have moved out for work. Residents in Bali, on the other hand, have many things to complain about regarding their polluted environment, which Wang addresses on his political agenda.

Chatting with locals brings knowledge about their lives, and it can help the GPT gradually break its limits as an urban political party, Wang says.

Meanwhile, Wang’s anti-development stance has inevitably created a lot of enemies. When he successfully helped to nullify an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report for the proposed Tamsui-Taipei expressway construction project last year, many were furious, accusing him of being autocratic.

“I can understand people’s anger and frustration. It is exactly how we feel when the government does something which we believe is wrong,” Wang reflects.

He adds, “Dealing with emotions is much harder than participating in the debate about ideas. Part of a politician’s job is to communicate with people. And that is something I need to put more effort into.”

Public needs to keep up pressure on governments

Public needs to keep up pressure on governments 

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2014/09/22/2003600279 
By Wang Chung-ming 王鐘銘
Translated by Julian Clegg

The Executive Yuan is adjusting its national regional plan and the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) is working on amendments to the Enforcement Rules for the Regional Plan Act (區域計畫法施行細則).

The authorities have made several attempts to consult with civic groups to reduce conflicts, but these matters have run up against the same problem: While the central government wants to devolve some of its powers and responsibilities to local governments, the local authorities do not enjoy people’s trust.

The Ministry of the Interior wants counties and municipalities to operate their own regional planning committees, and the EPA wants them to do a proper job of conducting environmental impact assessments. Environmental groups are worried that development projects will not be examined properly and that they will get pushed through due to vested interests.

Two examples, one positive and one negative, can show why such worries exist.

The controversy over environmental impact assessments for the Miramar Resort on the Taitung County coast has dragged on for 10 years with no resolution because the Taitung County Government’s assessments have not been done in accordance with the law. To begin with, the county government helped the resort’s developers evade an assessment. However, eventually, an assessment became unavoidable. Since then, there have been seven assessments, but none has been conducted legitimately.

The other example is that of the expansion of the Hsinchu Science Park using land in Miaoli County’s Houlong Township (後龍), which was rejected by the ministry’s Construction and Planning Agency in the face of protests by Wanbao Borough (灣寶) farmers. This is a rare example of a successful campaign against land expropriation.

Another reason for this success was that the department in charge of examining the expansion plan was the ministry’s Regional Planning Commission. If the Miaoli County Government comes to have a regional planning commission of its own, it is doubtful whether fertile farmland like that of Wanbao will continue to be preserved.

Part of the reason why the ministry and the EPA want to hand over some of their powers and responsibilities is that they often face protests and even administrative lawsuits, yet instead of tackling the underlying problems, they prefer to skirt around them. Civic groups are obviously not willing to let them get away with that.

At the same time, civic groups must admit that we cannot go on forever expecting the central government to be the arbiter of justice, sending its agents to receive local residents’ petitions and handle disputes.

There are two key reasons why people do not trust local governments. The first is a lack of information transparency and public participation in all kinds of procedures, and the second is the lack of effective checks and balances in interactions between executive and legislative departments, which results in a monolithic approach to policy decisions. The former reason represents a lack of participatory democracy, while the latter results from neglect of duty in a representative democracy.

Both these problems require the public to keep challenging the government to reform the system, to educate executive departments so that they will come to carry out procedures more smoothly.

Nationwide local elections will be held on Nov. 29. Are the above-mentioned expectations being raised as an electoral issue? Does sufficient pressure exist to make these changes happen? If these concerns are still not raised, the ministry and the EPA will have to go on acting as the last lines of defense.

Poll finds 82 percent think housing prices too high

Poll finds 82 percent think housing prices too high
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2014/06/10/2003592423

Staff writer, with CNA

A housing policy survey recently conducted by the Want Want China Times Poll Center among adults in Taipei, New Taipei City, Greater Taichung and Greater Kaohsiung showed that 82 percent of the respondents think housing prices are unreasonable in comparison with their incomes.

Among the age groups polled, 30-to-39-year-olds were found to be the most dissatisfied with housing prices, with 91 percent complaining that prices are unreasonably high.

Despite the discontent expressed, 69.4 percent of those surveyed listed owning a home as one of their goals in life.

However, 63.6 percent said they could never afford to buy one in an urban area, according to the survey, which collected 2,447 valid samples from telephone interviews which took place between May 12 and May 14.

“Using a real-estate purchase as the core financial management strategy for life will cause significant damage to the nation and society,” said Hua Ching-chun (花敬群), an associate professor at Takming University of Science and Technology.

A good housing policy should make helping the socially disadvantaged the top priority, Hua added, suggesting that the government provide sufficient social housing and take measures to solidify the rental market.

An article published by the Chinese-language China Times yesterday concerning equality in Taiwan featured the failure of the 1990-2014 Danhai New Town (淡海新市鎮) development project in New Taipei City’s Tamsui (淡水) along the northern coast of Taiwan.

The project was aimed at “building housing units for mid and low-income households,” and “resolving the housing problem in the Greater Taipei area,” while “suppressing land prices,” in response to protests about a lack of affordable housing in metropolitan areas and rising house prices.

Danhai New Town was designed to accommodate 300,000 people on 1,756 hectares. However in the past 25 years, the town has had an occupancy rate of less than 10 percent.

Pointing to a group of more than 600 public housing units situated further along the coast, Danhai New Town resident Lu Cheng-chung (盧正忠) said that basically, the project was a failure.

“Those in the middle and lower income brackets cannot afford to commute [between the remote town and the city in which they work], Tamsui resident Wang Chung-ming (王鐘銘) said.

Also, no manufacturing industries want to move to the coast, while many local light industry businesses have been forced to move out due to the government’s land requisition policies and restrictions that prevent industries from expanding, he added.

Urban Reform Promotion Organization secretary-general Peng Yang-kae (彭揚凱) said the government’s housing policy is either encouraging people to buy homes or build cheap public housing.

However, history shows “no one wants to live in a remote area,” Peng said.

As for public housing built in urban areas, he pointed out, the quantity is too small to suppress rising housing prices. The chance of finding this kind of affordable accommodation through the drawing of lots is the same as winning the lottery, Peng said.

Government 'misleading' public over nuclear policy

Government 'misleading' public over nuclear policy
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2014/05/08/2003589843

By Tang Chia-ling and Lo Chien-yi  /  Staff reporters

Taiwan Power Co’s (Taipower) application to the Atomic Energy Council to extend the lifespan of the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant shows that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) promise not to extend the life of the three operating nuclear power plants is just another broken promise, a lawmaker and antinuclear activists said yesterday.

The criticism came as Minister of Economic Affairs Chang Chia-juch (張家祝) and a section head from the council’s Nuclear Regulation Department, Chang Shin (張欣), appeared before the legislature’s Economics Committee yesterday.

Chang Shin told lawmakers that Taipower has approached the council about its application to extend the life of the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Shihmen District (石門) and was asked to submit additional data.

Asked if such a review went against Ma’s promise not to extend the lifespan of the three operating plants, Chang Shin said: “Energy policies are made by energy-related agencies, and the Atomic Energy Council is in charge of monitoring nuclear safety. Taipower postponed its operation extension application [made in 2009] on its own, so it has the right to resume it.”

During a press conference on energy policy on Nov. 3, 2011, Ma said that Taiwan would steadily move toward the goal of reducing nuclear power and would not extend the lifespan of the three operating nuclear plants.

Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Cheng Li-chun (鄭麗君) said that as the Jinshan plant’s spent fuel pool is almost at full capacity, extending its lifespan would be neglecting the life and property of the more than 7 million people who live in the Greater Taipei area.

Cheng said the Executive Yuan has previously claimed that several countries have found final repositories for their high-level radioactive wastes, including spent nuclear fuel, but very few countries have finalized their decisions.

Even if they have finalized their decisions, it would be impossible for them to accept Taiwan’s spent nuclear fuel, she said.

Only Sweden and Finland are still planning to establish nuclear waste final repositories, but Finland’s laws stipulate that “nuclear wastes that are not domestically produced shall not be handled, stored or permanently disposed of in Finland,” she said.

There is not a township in Taiwan that is willing to accept nuclear waste and the government is lying to the public with its claims of “international cooperation” and “treatment across national boundaries,” she said.

Taipower chief nuclear energy engineer Chai Fu-feng (蔡富豐) said that although Finland’s final repository for high-level radioactive wastes in Olkiluoto Island, Eurajoki cannot accept Taiwan’s raw spent nuclear fuel, there are still many possibilities for Taiwan’s high-level radioactive waste treatment after processing in the future.

The International Atomic Energy Agency encourages international cooperation in dealing with nuclear waste, although no specific plan has been reached, he said.

Meanwhile, Green Citizen Action Alliance deputy secretary-general Hung Shen-han (洪申翰) said trying to extend the lifespan of the three plants “is the Ma government’s expression of pro-nuclear power and a completely regressive step.”

Wang Chung-ming (王鐘銘), of the Northern Coast Anti-Nuclear Action Alliance, said the government is trying to use the extension of the three plants’ to hide that it lacks the ability to decommission the plants or deal with nuclear waste.

Antinuclear action to continue: groups

Antinuclear action to continue: groups
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2014/05/01/2003589310/1

NO MORE TALKS:An antinuclear protest group member said the groups would not continue talks begun last year with the Executive Yuan because of a lack of progress

By Lee I-chia  /  Staff reporter

Antinuclear groups said yesterday the platform for communicating with the Executive Yuan — established last year for discussing the treatment of nuclear waste — is a failed mechanism and that they would no longer attend meetings because the government has no intention or ability to deal with the issue.

More than a dozen people from the groups made the announcement yesterday afternoon in front of the Executive Yuan’s front gate, which was fenced with barbed wire barricades and protected by a line of police holding shields and batons.

The groups came to an agreement with Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) in April last year to form a communication platform to discuss issues concerning the treatment of nuclear waste.

After Jiang on Monday morning announced a halt to construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮), Minister of Economic Affairs Chang Chia-juch (張家祝) said on the same day that a postponement to the retirement of the three operating nuclear power plants would be discussed.

Northern Coast Anti-Nuclear Action Alliance executive committee member Wang Chung-ming (王鐘銘) said the groups would stop communicating with the government through the mechanism because the government has made no progress over the past year.

He said they had urged for low-level radioactive waste to be removed from the storage facility in Lanyu (蘭嶼) as its lease had expired, civic participation in deciding on locations for spent nuclear fuel dry cask storage facilities, no extension on the lifespan of currently operating nuclear power plants and no construction of a nuclear waste depository in eastern Taiwan, where less electricity is used.

“[The Executive Yuan] is incapable of dealing with nuclear waste, stalling and not doing anything,” the groups chanted outside the Executive Yuan.

Tao Foundation (蘭嶼部落文化基金會) secretary-general Sinan Mavivo said: “I have been dumb enough to believe the government when it promised to move the waste away ... but our hope has turned into despair.”

“We’re fed up,” Green Citizen Action Alliance deputy secretary-general Hung Shen-han (洪申翰) said. “After one year, the government still has no plan to meet our demands, and even said it needs more time to study the issue, but local residents just want to feel safe when they sleep.”

“If the government is incapable of solving the nuclear waste problems, then why extend the lifespan of nuclear power plants and create more nuclear waste?” Hung asked.

Northern Coast Anti-Nuclear Action Alliance chief executive Kuo Ching-lin (郭慶霖) said: “When we use nuclear fuel rods for five years, the toxic danger threatens future generations for hundreds of thousands of years, so why does anyone want to use nuclear power?”

He said that since he was a child, the plants have been constructed, and for the past few decades, the groups have been trying different ways to convince the government of the danger.

Nuclear policy is being controlled by certain groups who benefit from it, “but the government never listens to us,” Kuo said.

Dumping envelopes filled with documents from various meetings with government agencies from his bag, Kuo said people have called him irrational for participating in antinuclear social movements, such as occupying Zhongxiao W Road on Sunday.

“It is because efforts made through the legal system and during countless meetings were all neglected,” he said.

“A few days ago, my daughter said she has not eaten a meal cooked by me for a long time,” Kuo said, adding that its not that they like being busy and protesting all the time, but they are fighting for the safety of the public against the government, which is forcing legislators to back up its policies.

He said the government is creating division and hatred among people by stigmatizing antinuclear protesters by calling them “hijackers.”

The groups said they will continue to fight against nuclear power at the local level in various ways in their hometowns.

Groups urge public to abolish nuclear power this year

Groups urge public to abolish nuclear power this year
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2014/02/24/2003584215

By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter / Taipei Times Staff reporters

This year will be the most crucial year in the fight to abolish nuclear power in Taiwan, anti-nuclear groups said at a forum in Taipei yesterday, citing reasons that included the possible insertion of fuel rods in the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮).

“Other reasons are that since the [three] active nuclear plants are fast approaching their planned retirement dates and the government is always stalling on its promises to decommission the plants, the problem of nuclear waste treatment could become a tipping point this year,” Wang Chung-ming (王鐘銘), a member of the Northern Coast Anti-Nuclear Action Alliance’s executive committee, told the forum hosted by the National Nuclear Abolition Action Platform.

Wang said activists fear the government may try to extend the active plants’ operational life span.

He said that Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) has already extended the original capacity of the spent fuel pools at the three active plants by increasing storage density. The capacity of the pool at the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Shihmen District (石門) was extended from 3,030 bundles to 5,514, while the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里) had its 5,040-bundle capacity pool raised to 7,544 and the pool at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County’s Ma-anshan (馬鞍山) went from handling 1,492 bundles to 2,328.

On Saturday, Taipower announced that the spent fuel pool at the Jinshan Nuclear Power Plant will meet its storage capacity at the end of the year, so it urgently needs the government to approve its plan to build a dry-storage facility.

However, Wang said that Taipower is merely trying to force the government and the public to approve the dry-storage facility.

He added that dry cask storage of spent fuel is not only controversial, because the feasibility of taking spent fuel rods from the pools are a safety concern, but also that it is doubtful that the proposed facility — which is meant to be used for mid-term storage — will not eventually be made into a final disposal site, given that Taipower has broken its promises many times in the past.

“Taipower bounced its checks on removing low-level radioactive waste from Lanyu (蘭嶼), which was originally planned for 2002, then extended to 2016 and last year once again pushed back to 2021,” Wang said. “If Taipower cannot deal with low-level radioactive waste disposal, how can we trust it to properly deal with spent nuclear fuel?”

Green Citizens’ Action Alliance director-general Lai Wei-chieh (賴偉傑) said it is frustrating to see how the government “threatens the public and shirks its responsibility” to continue using nuclear power, rather than developing alternative energy policies.

Lai said anti-nuclear groups are worried that fuel rods will be inserted at the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant as part of test runs during the safety inspections currently being conducted by the Atomic Energy Council that Taipower has said will be completed by June.

Moreover, even though the council has not approved Taipower’s ultimate response measures, the company and President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) have already promised the public that a nuclear disaster can be prevented in the event of an emergency situation, Lai said.

“The government should devise institutional electricity-saving measures, such as dispersing electricity demand during peak hours, or improving power usage effectiveness, rather than morally pressuring the public to save electricity,” he said.

The groups urged the public to attend a parade set for March 8 to promote the “total abolition of nuclear power, face the problems of nuclear waste, terminate the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant and created a nuclear-free homeland.”