The Stench of Land Grabbing Expands

Taiwan News has two articles related to land grabs for economic development.

In the first, Changhua farmers are set to protest against being forced to sell their land to allow the construction of a road for the a new science park.

In the second, now utterly discredited KMT Miaoli Magistrate Liu Cheng-hung is under suspicion of profiting illegally from land speculation and avoiding taxes top pay off family debt. Interestingly, his house is in the area of the proposed HSR Miaoli station in which priceless historic pottery kilns were destroyed extra-legally, thus eradicating a superb potential tourist revenue generator. That destruction was also quite politically sensitive at the time. Never mind that the kilns were an important part of Hakka culture in the area and featured in the 2004 Kilns and More Kilns Art Festival—Miaoli History of Ceramic Kilns and Modern Art Exhibition in which "The Kiln Culture Civic Center, Classroom and Theater (Huataoyao) Dirctor-General Jhang Yunhui has said that the theme of this festival is “five historic kilns and five painters".

Extra: Is it me, or is there a little trend going on of those people rounded up along with former president Chen in a 'crack down on corruption' finding that the cases against them weren't so airtight after all? Could it be that the slew of prosecutions against Chen and his associates may have been motivated by something other than combating crime and cleaning politics?

Meanwhile, yet another pan-blue politician has lost his seat to vote-buying. Lin Cheng-er, the only remaining Legislator for James Soong's People First Party (Taoyuan district), lost his seat Tuesday as the Taiwan High Court declared his election invalid. Lin was a member of the KMT legislative caucus, which will be reduced to 74 seats in the 113-member Legislative Yuan after his departure. I don't expect the DPP to win the by-election but this news is not going to please KMT election maverik King who must be praying for local factions and pan blue politicians to stop getting caught before the KMT end up losing 3 or maybe 4 mayoral elections.

A little thought: Would it make more sense for the DPP to throw all their effort into winning as many mayor-ships and legislative seats as possible rather than spend valuable cash trying to win the presidency? If Ma gets reelected, something China will surely try their best to manifest, he would be a lame duck without a legislative majority and surrounded by mayors run by the opposition. Better than the DPP winning another presidency only to be scuppered by another KMT legislative / mayoral majority?