Yilan farmhouse reform crosses the line, Agriculture Director Yang Wen-chuan removed before the election
Word recently came out of the Yilan County government that its small cabinet was in for a big reshuffle, including the removal of Yilan County Agriculture Department Director Yang Wen-chuan, who had taken on the farmhouse reform issue. Although the county government insisted the shake-up was meant to make the small cabinet "younger," outsiders said bluntly that the incoming agriculture director was an old hand who favored the "development faction," and that this last-minute personnel change before the election was very likely County Magistrate Lin Tsung-hsien's way of answering to his vote brokers.
Yang Wen-chuan admitted frankly that the pressure since taking office had been great, that the magistrate had told him the agriculture director post would only last until the end of January, and that in the future he would return to Lanka 200, where he would continue to be a farmer.
Yilan's Farmhouse Reform Vanguard Hits the Brakes Before the Election
In March of last year, the Yilan County government fired the first shot of farmhouse reform, giving notice of the "Yilan County Regulations Governing the Qualifications of Applicants to Build Farmhouses and the Review of Farmhouse Construction," which explicitly stipulated that anyone building a farmhouse in the future must hold farmer insurance status to ensure that farmland is actually used for farming. Then in May, the central Council of Agriculture made a major move to amend the "Regulations Governing the Construction of Farmhouses on Agricultural Land," likewise seeking to curb the chaos of luxury farmhouses springing up one after another and farmhouses being given away with the purchase of farmland.
The "Regulations Governing the Construction of Farmhouses on Agricultural Land" were officially announced in September. In October, although 18 legislators including Chen Chao-ming, Hsu Shu-hua, Liao Cheng-ching and Tsai Chin-lung signed a petition in the Legislative Yuan requesting that the regulations be changed from "placed on record" to "reviewed," in an attempt to block the amendment, the farmhouse amendment was downgraded to placement on record as the 8th session of the 8th Legislative Yuan ended early, confirming that it had safely made it home.
The Yilan County government, meanwhile, repealed the "Yilan County Regulations Governing the Qualifications of Applicants to Build Farmhouses and the Review of Farmhouse Construction" in November, claiming it was returning to central statutes, though local farming groups criticized this as disabling its own powers, because the Yilan farmhouse local self-governance ordinance's wall controls and related building standards were stricter than the central ones.
At the end of last month, word came out of the Yilan County government that more than half of its bureau and department heads would be replaced, among them Agriculture Department Director Yang Wen-chuan and Deputy Director Kang Li-ho. Speaking earlier in an interview, Yang Wen-chuan said: "The magistrate told me at the end of December that I would be replaced, that the agriculture director post would only last until the end of January, and I don't know the arrangements for the next person in the agriculture policy unit."
As for whether the magistrate explained why he was being replaced, Yang Wen-chuan smiled awkwardly and said outright that he could not respond, though he admitted frankly that reforming farmhouses since taking office had brought enormous pressure, and that after leaving office he believed the farmhouse issue could very well be reversed. "I'm quite worried about the future of Yilan's agriculture."
Councillors Boycott the Policy, Regardless of Blue or Green
It is understood that the person currently rumored to be taking over as Yilan County agriculture director is county government counselor Chen Te-hsing, while the deputy director would be Chen Wen-chin, head of the Animal and Plant Disease Control Center. Tsou Pin-wei, section chief of the news section of the Yilan County Secretariat, said that the personnel changes had not yet been comprehensively reviewed, and that whether the agriculture director had actually been replaced, who would take over and when they would assume office could not be answered.
Wu Shao-wen, a Yilan County legislator candidate for the Green Party-Social Democratic Party alliance, said that although the government claimed externally that this round of personnel changes was about "making the small cabinet younger," in her view it was fundamentally "conglomeratization," because the person taking over as agriculture director was a senior official being recycled, and the deputy agriculture director was a close relative of Yilan County Council Speaker Chen Wen-chang, who had once accused "Lin Tsung-hsien's poor appointments of causing poor administrative efficiency."
Wu Shao-wen said that ever since County Magistrate Lin Tsung-hsien decided to start regulating farmhouses, the pressure from Democratic Progressive Party councillors had been constant and great, especially since a large part of the Yilan Farmers' Association's business lies in land credit. This pre-election personnel change was very likely meant to answer to his vote brokers or factions. "I originally thought the magistrate brought in Yang Wen-chuan at the time to move closer to progressive forces, but I never expected that before the election he would still bow to the old forces."
Wu Shao-wen pointed out that 16 years ago the "Agricultural Development Act" relaxed the rules so farmland could be bought and sold freely, and at that time it was the Democratic Progressive Party in power. Now that the Democratic Progressive Party is about to come in again, Yilan County has actually replaced the farmhouse reformists of the past, showing that the Democratic Progressive Party and the Kuomintang are fundamentally no different, willing to agree to free trading of farmland for the sake of votes. She stressed that Yilan has now repealed its original local farmhouse self-governance ordinance, in other words returning to central regulations, so the problem would return to the hands of "enforcement personnel," namely the incoming agriculture director, and everything would depend on how enforcement personnel themselves interpreted the regulations.
Lai Ching-sung: Calls on All Sectors to Write In and Voice Their Opinions
Lai Ching-sung, founder of the "Gudong Club," posted his own views on this on Facebook last night: "I don't know whether this kind of personnel arrangement is more conducive to Yilan's agricultural development? Or has the pressure of farmland transactions exceeded the limit of the magistrate's tolerance? The magistrate's sincere face when he visited at the end of the year before last seems like yesterday. Ching-sung believes that as a political figure, he must have come under tremendous pressure from interest groups."
The post also said: "On the eve of this election, perhaps everyone can write a letter to Yilan. Whether you are a native-born Yilan person or an outsider who loves Yilan's land and nature, you are all welcome to take up your pen and write down your own longing and feelings for this beautiful land. When banknotes carry too much desire, when ballots accumulate excessive expectations, perhaps this is what we can still hold on to, and need not give up!"
In the more than a year since Yang Wen-chuan took over as Yilan County agriculture director, besides pushing for the farmhouse amendment, he also established the "Yilan Strict Selection" agricultural product brand and tried to promote friendly production and marketing channels. Whether these policies will change with the new round of personnel changes is worth watching.