In the well-known Tainan Railway Relocation protest case, an unexpectedly moving presentation appeared today at the Interior Ministry’s review meeting. Ms. Tsai Chia-ling of the South Rail Self-Help Association shared a touching story with Tainan’s leader, Mayor Lai Ching-te, during the Interior Ministry’s Urban Development Committee special project group’s second review of the Tainan Railway Relocation case.
The following complete speech was transcribed by independent journalist Chu Shu-juan, who has long covered environmental issues, transforming Ms. Tsai Chia-ling’s Taiwanese-language story into Mandarin. We hope friends dedicated to contributing to Taiwanese society will take a few moments to carefully read about the current difficulties faced by the South Rail Self-Help Association.
Complete Speech by South Rail Self-Help Association’s Tsai Chia-ling
Teacher Shi just said our mayor (Tainan Mayor Lai Ching-te) didn’t do anything, but actually he did—he did quite a bit, nowadays we have more and more self-help associations in Tainan.
What Does Home Mean to Everyone?
I’m a daughter-in-law who has lived beside the railway for $20$ years. Home is what my father-in-law left us. Since childhood, I’ve never left Tainan for more than $10$ days. After marrying, I thought I’d grow old there.
I wasn’t worried about my children’s schooling because there were many schools nearby—those who study well go to First High School or National Cheng Kung University; those who don’t study well can go elsewhere. We can eat whatever we want nearby. People talk about how the railway side is this and that, but we lived with water and fire every day, crossing the railway countless times. You complain about congestion when you visit once in a while, but before you never thought about us when there was railway noise and coal smoke. Now that you want our land, you say you’ll give us a new home. I ask you, where is our home?
You control information, you can rearrange our private property, drawing one line and our home disappears, and we don’t know what to do for the next $20$ years. My children are just reaching the expensive years, and my mother-in-law just had surgery yesterday. We received the official notice yesterday evening. We took leave, got up early in the morning, afraid we’d miss this speaking opportunity.
This isn’t about taking more or less—it’s about whether proper procedures were followed before. This case passed in $98$ (year 2009), did we know about it then? On August 17, $101$ (date in 2012), we received the registered letter, August $28$ first meeting, August $31$ second meeting, October $26$ Mayor Lai first met with us. My neighbor Mrs. Jiang told him her situation was very difficult, and Mayor Lai told her: “I sympathize with you.”
We were living happily and peacefully. When did we need the mayor’s sympathy? His heart is so bad—he wants to demolish our home and then say he sympathizes with us.
Just imagine with our feelings. If this happened to you, how would you react? The Ministry of Transportation even told us that we should build bridges and roads as good deeds. We’ve experienced too much injustice from the beginning to now. Every meeting we wanted to sit down and speak properly, but what did we get? Police layer upon layer, our people lined up like intestines. Are we so bad? Did we bring knives or guns? Are you treating us as people? It’s just respect.
All the controversy comes from procedure. You didn’t do procedure right. Did you think about how this line affects $323$ households or $407$ households—whatever you say. Relocation compensation doesn’t cost money? You seize my house and I still have to pay the mortgage.
Tainan City Government is also strange. The case wasn’t handled properly in Tainan, and sent to the central government it’s still confused. I invite committee members to Tainan for me to give a tour. Don’t say we’re speaking without foundation. We demand the right to survive. You can’t just say yes casually and pass. Procedural injustice, information concealment—it makes people furious.
Please, chairman, everyone, do everyone a favor and let us have a good new year. That’s all we ask.
At today’s Interior Ministry Urban Development Committee special project group’s second review of the Tainan Railway Relocation case, I heard a very moving speech. I wanted to write it down but then discovered how limited words are. Because this speech was delivered in very beautiful Taiwanese Tainan accent, filled with emotion, yet controlled restraint of emotion, making it especially moving to hear in person. How could anyone bear it!
Posted by Chu Shu-juan on January 27, 2016