Flying transformation of small rural schools resurfaces doubts over leaving farming and destroying farmland
Editor's note:Chengmin Elementary School in Yunlin County faces a crisis of closure, because the Yunlin County Government intends to merge and dissolve Chengmin Elementary School and bring in the Falun Gong-affiliated "Feitian Arts School" to take over the original campus, transforming it into "Yunlin County Mailiao High School Huwei Chengmin Arts High School Branch and Junior High School Branch." Besides harming local children's right to education, the old trees on campus will also be removed, triggering backlash from teachers, students, parents, alumni and local residents, while the Yunlin County Government's position is also highly controversial.
After community grandmothers knelt earlier to plead with the Falun Gong Feitian Arts School, controversy has erupted again recently over the planned expropriation of Ministry of National Defense land outside the school that farmers have long leased. Below is the voice of the community self-rescue association.
Source: Press release from the Huwei Grandmothers Protecting Grandchildren and Trees Self-Rescue Association
On the morning of the 25th, the Yunlin County Government invited the Ministry of National Defense to conduct a site survey of Ministry of National Defense land immediately outside Chengmin Elementary School, in order to solve the problem of insufficient school grounds after the Falun Gong Feitian Arts School relocates to Chengmin Elementary School in the future. Since most of that land is currently cultivated by Beixi Village residents and serves as their source of livelihood, more Beixi Village grandfathers and grandmothers, upon hearing the news, put down the work in their hands and hurried from the fields to Chengmin Elementary School to express their firm opposition to Feitian (Falun Gong). As more and more people gathered at the scene, the police dispatched more than ten officers, and County Councilor Chen Junlong also came to show concern.
Ministry of National Defense personnel and the Education Department director then temporarily moved to a third-floor meeting room at nearby Chongde Junior High School for a meeting. Beixi Village farmers also rushed to Chongde Junior High School, but were blocked outside the meeting room door and could only hold white banners outside to express their position and demands.
On July 18, 2012, the Yunlin County Mountain Line Community College held a citizen forum to discuss the future direction of "Chengmin Elementary School." Even though they were not invited by the organizers, the grandfathers and grandmothers of Beixi Village stood throughout the entire event, repeatedly expressing to attending Deputy County Magistrate Shi Kehe and Feitian (Falun Gong) Arts School principal Wu Yanmen, teachers and parent representatives their strong opposition to the county government's forced relocation of the Feitian Arts School to Chengmin. Their reasons included questioning the legality of the Yunlin County Feitian Arts School, not wanting their children to have to "study the law and practice the exercises" in a public school, and the harm to the original students' right to education from merging the two schools under conditions of insufficient school grounds.
In the end, the Huwei grandmothers, despite illness, knelt down and begged the county government and Feitian (Falun Gong) to spare Chengmin Elementary School. However, while the county government said on one hand that it would improve and communicate and listen to the voices of local residents, on the other hand it continued to carry out the established policy of relocating Feitian to Chengmin.
Beixi Village residents said sadly that with just one sentence from Feitian (Falun Gong), "We really love Chengmin's environment!", the county government insisted on helping Feitian build an arts school at Chengmin. The poor farmers of Yunlin County are already paying taxes for Feitian to use, and now County Magistrate Su Zhifen, besides giving Chengmin Elementary School's grounds to Feitian, also wants to sell out farmers and destroy fields to build an arts school for the insufficient portion of school grounds! This is truly too much!
Regarding the Ministry of National Defense's agreement today to conduct the site survey, some people at the scene questioned the Ministry of National Defense representative: Is Taiwan's latest national defense policy to unite with Falun Gong to jointly resist the CCP? Otherwise, why would the Ministry of National Defense be willing to assist the Yunlin County Government in surveying the land outside Chengmin Elementary School for Falun Gong to build the Feitian Arts School so as to train Falun Gong personnel?
Huwei Grandmothers Protecting Grandchildren and Trees Self-Rescue Association press contacts:
Honorary President Chen Yanrong 0953286661
President Chen Yuanbin 0932778437
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