August in Taiwan is the height of the typhoon season, and Typhoon Herb turned out to be the most destructive in decades. The political arena was also struck by a whirlwind of gangland activity-which blew Legislative Yuan member Liao Hsueh-kuang into a dog kennel somewhere out in the countryside. Perhaps it will take this month's visit to Ukraine by Vice-President Lien Chan to open up a larger international space for the ROC, so that our citizens can catch a breath of fresh air.

When powerful typhoon Herb finally moved away from Taiwan on 1 August after lingering for two days, it left the island bruised and battered. Severe destruction was reported from throughout Taiwan. According to statistics from the Ministry of the Interior, by 14 August the typhoon had caused 523 deaths and injuries. As reported by Taiwan Power Company, on 31 July and 1 August, the two days with the strongest winds and heaviest rainfall, one household in three throughout Taiwan was left without electric power. The size of the area affected by the outages set a new record. Council of Agriculture staff who set out as the winds subsided to inspect the areas most severely affected, estimated that arable and livestock farming and fisheries suffered losses to the value of over NT$20 bn, the highest recorded for a single typhoon in over a decade.

In broad terms, the unprecedented damage caused by Typhoon Herb can be divided into a number of categories: urban damage, of which the most typical was the flooding in poorly drained low-lying areas such as Shetzu in Taipei City, or Tucheng and Panchiao in Taipei County; coastal flooding, caused by breached sea walls and tidal flows, with Changhua County most severely affected; and flash floods and landslides in mountain areas, which buried villages and people and swept away bridges, cutting off food supplies. The devastation in the mountains of Nantou County and at Mt. Ali, where illegal clearing and logging have been most rampant in recent years, aroused the greatest public shock and sympathy.

Tea and betel nuts destroying Taiwan

On examining the reasons for the damage, Herb was of course the main culprit, but many experts, and even officials in relevant government departments, believe that the main reasons for "nature striking back"-causing the damage to be more widespread than it might otherwise have been-are to be found in people at all levels pursuing their own short-sighted gain. Section chief Wu Hui-lung of the Council of Agriculture, who is responsible for water and soil conservation, says that 966 hectares of land along the Mt. Ali highway were previously all heavily forested, but since the road was built, areca palms, tea plantations and vegetable patches have replaced almost two-thirds of the forest which protected the soil and soaked up water on the mountain slopes. The situation in Nantou County is similar. Professor Chang Shih-chiao of National Taiwan University's geography department says more bluntly that as Mt. Ali, the Pachang River and the mountains of Nantou County are all catchment areas which feed the headwaters of large rivers, excessive development is quite certainly what is behind the enlarged scale of the disaster. He also says that in the case of the coastal areas of Changhua and Chiayi Counties, which were almost all submerged, although breaches in the sea walls added to the problems, the main reason why the sea made such massive inroads was the land subsidence caused by overextraction of ground water.

As for the severe flooding in low-lying areas such as Tucheng and Panchiao by the Tanshui River in Taipei County and Shetzu in Taipei City, one can certainly blame the lie of the land. But with rivers being used daily as garbage dumping sites-4500 tons of refuse are dumped into watercourses every day throughout Taiwan-and with waste soil from construction sites also being disposed of in river beds, is it any surprise that this leads to disaster when heavy rains come? Furthermore, although local governments are well aware of the dangers, to garner votes they have again and again promoted construction in low-lying areas, so that places which should never have been developed at all have become densely populated urban districts. This makes drainage all the more difficult, creating a vicious circle. The unfortunate timing of discharges from the Shihmen and Feitsui reservoirs, and incidents of negligence and mechanical failure at flood gates and pumping stations in Tucheng and elsewhere, are entirely human factors, and therefore the most easily rectified. If the authorities can only grasp the nettle, matters can be improved very quickly, and if there is another Herb it will give immediate proof of the results.

Apart from a few bureaucrats who fell down on the job, the spirit shown by the government and private organizations such as the Tzu Chi Foundation in emergency relief and rescue work earned general respect. But as well as providing disaster relief, it is even more important that the government should take steps to prevent disasters. This has direct implications for the conflict and balance between economic development in pursuit of strength and prosperity, and the preservation of our natural environment to safeguard the land for all future generations. This is not something that can be achieved by punishing officials for dereliction of duty, or even by arresting all the corrupt, lawless scoundrels implicated in cases of shoddy work and skimped materials in flood control projects. Over many years, the central government departments responsible for water and soil conservation and for planning and hydrology projects have issued many plans and standards. For instance, in the "Northern Taiwan Flood Control Plan" published in 1960, the government explicitly designated Shetzu Island as a flood retarding basin. But one Shetzu mayor after another has continued with large-scale construction and development there. The central government has taken no action in response, and ordinary members of the public are not alert to the problem. Today, Shetzu has a population double the planned figure.

Turning once again to the disaster areas in central and southern Taiwan, illegal land clearance, logging and construction are plain for all to see, but without the "health check" delivered by Herb, they would never have caused such a stir. Previously only a small number of academics and experts had been repeatedly shouting frantic warnings, but forestry and farming interests had constantly pressed for forest land to be released for replanting with cash crops or to build tourist facilities, and in response to public pressure the government had adopted a policy of gradual opening. Although for a time farmers' incomes improved, seemingly bringing prosperity to rural areas, the resulting soil erosion has finally put many people's lives and homes in danger. This is a problem which the relevant authorities must think deeply about. Ways must be found to put long-term sustainability first. On the one hand, in the short term, no more forest land should be released for development, and we should quickly begin to replant deforested areas; and on the other hand local people need to be educated about soil conservation and environmental protection, and compensation schemes must be devised. The situation absolutely cannot be allowed to continue to get any worse.

After the typhoon, under a barrage of media attacks, self-critical noises could be heard emanating from all government departments. President Lee Teng-hui and Vice-President-cum-Premier Lien Chan both gave explicit instructions that disaster relief and reconstruction after the typhoon, and the question of responsibility, were to be one of the government's two main priorities for the immediate future. Immediately after the typhoon had passed, Lien Chan called an Executive Yuan "Enlarged Disaster Relief Conference," at which he instructed the Council for Economic Planning and Development and the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission to deliver, within one month, a comprehensive review of four major issues: the North Taiwan Flood Control Plan, prevention of land subsidence, reconstruction of river dikes and sea walls, and demarcation of the powers and responsibilities of water conservancy agencies. Today, the task for the whole nation is to build a consensus on protecting this homeland of ours. In terms of the big picture, we must watch carefully to see that the government delivers on its promises and really does bite the bullet of reform in the areas of shortcomings, while on an individual level, each of us can examine our own actions, and think carefully whether our individual consumption habits and pursuit of short-term gain have not in some way added to the damage done by Herb. If we can do this, although Typhoon Herb has brought a scale of devastation not seen for three decades, we can make it the last typhoon to teach Taiwan such a bitter lesson.

On whose behalf?

The political scene had its own whirlwind: the kidnapping of Legislator Liao Hsueh-kuang, which prompted the ruling party to make "shoring up the public order" one of its two leading priorities. On 10 August Liao was abducted and then left in a dog cage in a remote area. On the outside of the cage was stuck a note which read, "Justice on Heaven's behalf." The incident resulted in another public outcry against the influence of the underworld and money in politics. With people from all quarters making various guesses about who was behind the kidnapping and why it was carried out, Liao and his unique political style once again came into the spotlight.

There are at least three main theories about who was behind it: The first, which Liao firmly believes himself, is that the crime was the work of the Tien Tao ("Heavenly Justice") gang. His proof was the note "Justice on Heaven's behalf." When Liao submitted to interviews by the media, he hinted that this crime was connected to a "certain" individual abroad. Liao suggested that during the cabinet reshuffle in June that he and Luo Fu-chu had argued, after which Liao publicly announced that he was leaving his independent alliance with four other legislators to establish another non-party alliance. This, he says, deeply embarrassed Luo and was the cause of the bad blood between them. These explanations caused Luo, who really was out of the country, to become the prime suspect. Upon his return, Luo immediately launched a counter-offensive, charging that the entire kidnapping was just a stunt cooked up by Liao himself, and that the note was written with the intent of casting suspicion on Luo. The third hypothesis is that a third party who has an ax to grind with both Luo and Liao planned the whole thing to frame Luo and teach Liao a lesson, and thus kill two birds with one stone. Because the related political figures all hate each other and there isn't much evidence, the police haven't cracked the case yet, but they are aggressively following leads. They have rejected the possibility that it was a stunt of Liao's own doing.

The victim of the kidnapping, Liao Hsueh-kuang, began his career in politics when he was elected to the Taipei County Assembly in 1978, and then served as Hsichih's mayor before being elected to the legislature. All through his career he has shown a flamboyant political style. A self-proclaimed Robin Hood and lonely fighter against moneyed interests, he has rankled many political figures and large corporations. When he was Hsichih mayor he collected a "mayor's tax," which enraged real estate interests, to build public facilities. Then, based on deposits made to his personal bank account, he was sentenced to 18 years on corruption charges. Nonetheless, the populace rallied behind him, and he was elected to the legislature (and thus gained immunity from prosecution) with the most votes of any candidate from Taipei County. After Liao entered the legislature, he took an uncharacteristically low profile before his joining and parting with Luo made him once again a controversial figure.

No matter what the truth is regarding the kidnapping, or however you feel about Liao's political style, the case shows that the underworld's entry into politics already poses serious challenges to public authority, and has made serving as a people's representative a "high-risk job" and twisted the very nature of politics. In recent days, under the banner of "opposing the underworld, moneyed interests and violence," a group of DPP legislators have asked Luo Fu-chu to disband the Tien Tao gang. This brought a ray of hope to the interpellations at the Legislative Yuan. President Lee Teng-hui asked that the cabinet produce a report on public order within a half year, and, in his capacity as KMT Party Chairman, he made it clear at the 14th Party Congress that the KMT would only stay in power if it showed itself able to handle crises by shoring up public security and rebuilding the damage caused by the typhoon, and thus demonstrating the power of public authority. The electorate, however, aren't blameless in this matter, having voted for candidates backed by the underworld and big money. The quality of their political fiber desperately needs raising; and they need to understand the importance of respecting dissent and respecting the law. Only then will we be able to achieve the open democratic society we want.

Academic diplomacy

Following all the bad news about the typhoon and the influence of the underworld in politics, August arrived with a gust of fresh air when Lien Chan, acting as vice president, opened up new space for Taiwan in the international arena. Besides attending the inauguration of President Fernandez of the Dominican Republic, he also took a top-secret trip to Ukraine, making him the highest ROC official to visit Eastern Europe since the fall of the Iron Curtain.

With the media feverishly scrambling to capture images related to Lien's Ukraine trip, he arrived home on the 22nd and held a press conference at CKS International Airport. Apart from asking about the content of his talks, the trip's effects on cross-strait relations and about whether he had meet with Ukraine President Kuchma, the press seemed most interested in how he had been able to ditch his huge media entourage to go off for three days in Ukraine. But Lien waved off many questions. As for whether he had really met with President Kuchma, he only said that he had seen everyone he had needed to see. He also let it drop that the Ukraine's leaders are very impressed with the pace of democratic reforms in Taiwan.

The nation's second highest official furtively flying off to foreign soil to engage in "secret diplomacy" brought varying reactions: Some members of the media described his departure as a virtually supernatural "disappearance," and the opposition questioned if such a mission wasn't better suited to a secret ambassador than a high-ranking executive official, at least until there was a major foreign-relations breakthrough with Ukraine. Yet perhaps the whole issue should be considered in light of the response from Beijing.

The mainland quickly lodged a formal protest with Ukraine, and canceled a scheduled trip by a trade delegation. PRC Foreign Ministry Spokesman Shen Guofang blamed Taiwan for destroying the negotiating atmosphere. Although Jiang Zemin himself advised against over-reaction, if plans for the trip had been exposed before it had taken place, one wouldn't have needed to ask to know the mainland's reaction. Taiwan already has limited space for maneuvering internationally, and any opportunity to expand relations overseas is hard to pass up. On this point most ROC citizens would surely agree. While some might argue that there is more to be lost than gained from pragmatic diplomacy that angers mainland China, Lien Chan pointed out that the ROC is not setting out to join the international community because of its effects on cross-strait relations, but rather is doing so to obtain the privileges that any independent sovereign nation should enjoy. In trying to pen us in internationally, Beijing is showing that it wants the ROC to disappear, which is truly not in Taiwan's interest.

As for the delicate relations between the two sides, Lien Chan affirmed that mainland China has reached a positive decision on air and sea links. He said that if the two sides can cooperate, it would be like a tiger growing wings, arguing that the two sides ought to seek mutually beneficial relations, lest cross-strait relations continue to go where they have for the last 50 years: nowhere.

Because Ukraine was in the heart of the former Soviet Union, it has highly developed steel, petrochemical, and aerospace industries. It also a has an ancient culture. Its principal city, Kiev, was built in the 13th century, and Ukraine has long prided itself on a civilization it considers far superior to that of Russia, which forcibly occupied Ukraine for 400 years. Lien Chan went on this trip to accept an honorary doctorate from the University of Kiev, where he had extensive discussions with educators. He didn't rule out the possibility of future cultural or technological cooperation. Three ROC universities-Chiaotung, Chengchih and Chinese Culture-all announced plans to cooperate with the University of Kiev. What's more, Ukraine is interested in developing trade with Taiwan and wants to establish a trade office in Taipei. The predatory Taiwan media may have lost a little face when their prey got away, but Lien Chan's "academic diplomacy" allowed Taiwan to obtain some real benefits. This matters more to the people.

Photo:

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In Tungshih Rural Township, Chiayi County, with its myriad fish farming ponds, overextraction of groundwater has caused continuing land subsidence year by year. During Typhoon Herb the fish ponds were almost all washed away, and residents' homes were seriously flooded. Our picture shows the flooding one week after the typhoon departed.