Charoen Pokphand Controversy 02"The future of Hualien is not for CP and the "King of Hualien" to decide! The anti-CP movement gathers citizen power to reflect on Hualien's fate
(Continued from the previous article) The anti-CP movement spread rapidly across Hualien, becoming the largest environmental protest in Hualien in recent years, forcing the Hualien County Government to float the idea of "considering a postponement" on the eve of the march in an attempt to quell public anger, but it still failed to extinguish the fury. More than 10,000 people have signed the petition in protest so far, and yesterday (the 20th) more than 1,200 people gathered for the march. According to the registration list, over 70% were locals from Fenglin, a remarkably strong show of mobilization.
This environmental protest was formed not only by a group of returning young people, newcomers and locally rooted organizations pooling their strength together; the deeper driving force behind it lies in the fact that Hualien's long-term development direction, strongly dominated by those in power, has left no room for public participation in the vision for Hualien's development, and the long-suppressed forces of civil society have erupted powerfully because of this environmental protest.
Hualien has its own development model and does not need to limit itself by western standards in everything
On the eve of the big march, the "Red Coffee" shop in front of Fenglin Railway Station was brightly lit, with people coming and going, betraying a tense atmosphere of a battle about to begin. This is the gathering point of the Fenglin Self-Rescue Association. At seven o'clock, people arrived one after another. Bookstore owner Lisin, holding a poster board, repeatedly confirmed the details of the march with the association's cadre members.
"Hualien has a serious outflow of population. Those who stayed behind used to be mocked as useless, as if everything in the west was best." Lisin, the coffee shop owner from the Amis Fengxin tribe, has participated in public affairs since the Suhua Improvement Project issue ten years ago. She found that Hualien's biggest problem is a lack of confidence in itself, not knowing that the life Hualien possesses is exactly what westerners envy.
Returning young man Yu Yen-chih said that the busy work in Taipei made him question his life; even riding a scooter, he could not find a parking space. When he felt most discouraged, he would especially miss Hualien, and only then did he realize that the simple, uncontentious way of the east was what he missed most about it, so he chose to return to Hualien. He never expected that big corporations were step by step changing Hualien, and he believes residents have the right to defend their way of life.
Corporations come to Hualien to reap profits, while the people of Hualien bear the bitter consequences of environmental destruction
Theater troupe leader Wei Kai added that westerners treat Hualien as a backyard of beautiful mountains and waters, and corporations, coveting clean and cheap land, also come to invest. Yet, "the people of Hualien are the ones who take on this land, this sky, this air. When corporations come running over, also saying they want to develop the local area and provide jobs, most people can see it but cannot taste it; instead, they must bear the consequences of mountains being dug open and the environment being developed." He believes this is unfair to the people of Hualien.
Kawah believes that "corporations buy people's hearts with rebate funds, but the people of Hualien are kidnapped by this kind of welfare colonialism, becoming ever more dependent on the rebate funds from large construction and large development projects, at the cost of sacrificing the environment and ceding their own right to development." She believes that only without large corporations do the people of Hualien have the chance to think clearly about what their own development path is.
Besides worrying about the decline in environmental quality brought by the chicken farm, they advocate that preserving their original way of life is Hualien's advantage. What is more, Fenglin is the first town in Taiwan, China to receive international "Cittaslow" certification, and it absolutely must not sacrifice the environment as the price of short-term development. Li Mei-ling is one of the main participants in this Fenglin self-rescue association, and safeguarding Fenglin's "Cittaslow" brand and development principles is her greatest demand in taking part in this environmental movement.
She believes that "Hualien originally had the chance to take a different development path, attracting travelers with its excellent natural environment and traditional culture. This requires environmentally friendly agricultural products and the development of traditional crafts and small-scale industries to match." Yet the county government has instead brought in large, resource-intensive industries, endangering the original development model, importing the western playbook into the east, which is in fact taking the long way around.
"Cittaslow certification" applicant Li Mei-ling: Only by going slower can you go farther
"At first, a young person from Fenglin traveling in Europe was asked to go knock on the door of the Cittaslow certification organization in Italy. The other party discovered that a small island country in Asia had actually noticed Cittaslow, was extremely surprised, was simply moved beyond words, and almost let Fenglin join on the spot." Li Mei-ling, who starting in 2012 spent three years applying for Italy's "Cittaslow" certification, is now the chairwoman of the Beilin San Village Community Development Association.
She explained that "behind Cittaslow is actually a set of sustainable development plans for a town, including that the population cannot be too dense, that development must not be pursued excessively, the proportion of water used by people, the level of activity of civic organizations, and also such things as organic agriculture development, cultural preservation awareness and environmental protection. These are all assessment indicators that Cittaslow places great importance on.
There cannot be too many chain stores or reliance on large-scale manufacturing. It pursues smallholder production, small shops and traditional craft stores. Cittaslow emphasizes that small industries must be helped to adapt to modern business models, and it does not oppose the use of online marketing, so as to preserve the right to choose and not let consumption be monopolized by large corporations.
Li Mei-ling believes the CP case has stirred public opinion to a boil. "What ordinary people can care about is odor pollution as a public nuisance and water source areas, but community work cares more about how to get the town to think about what the development direction Fenglin actually needs is," Li Mei-ling hopes to use this opportunity to clarify the imagination of development in the east. "The world develops too fast, and many beautiful and important things will be missed. Only by going slowly can you go longer and farther. Fenglin's problem is also a lesson Hualien must face." she said.
