Editorial: The fight to build a safer Taiwan

Two major earthquakes, each registering above 6 on the Richter scale, hit the northeastern part of Taiwan within 13 hours of one another this week. As the earth shook, many people panicked, suffering instant flashbacks to the 921 earthquake that caused so much destruction two years ago. Reliving the horror of 921 has given the public a new-found concern and interest in post-921 reconstruction. How much reconstruction has been completed? Have all the people made homeless found new homes? What about all the defective construction revealed by the collapse of buildings? Have the responsible individuals and companies been properly punished?

Two recent events indicate that the answers to the above questions are disappointing -- that shameless officials and individuals continue to treat reconstruction as cash cow, pocketing the resources appropriated for quake victims and ignoring building safety.

On Thursday the first verdict in a reconstruction corruption case was delivered. Chungliao (中寮) township Commissioner Wu Chao-feng (吳朝豐) was found guilty of taking kickbacks from construction companies bidding for local reconstruction projects and misappropriating reconstruction resources for use in improving real estate owned by himself and relatives.

How heartless can a person be? Didn't Wu see the countless lives lost and damage done by the 921 quake due to defective construction? The pathetic thing is that Wu is not the only official guilty of such misconduct and hopefully he won't be the only one to face punishment. The prevalence of bribery in reconstruction projects was confirmed by the fact that as many as 11 construction contractors were found guilty of bribery in the Wu case. How can anyone trust either the quality or the safety of buildings constructed by unscrupulous contractors willing to fork out big money to get reconstruction contracts?

On the other hand, the ability of some construction contractors to evade responsibility for the sub-standard buildings that collapsed in the 921 quake and jump on the reconstruction bandwagon is truly amazing. On the same day that Wu's verdict was handed down, KMT lawmaker Lin Yaw-shing (林耀興) held a press conference to publicize one such case. Lin pointed out that even though contractor Wu Ching-yun (伍慶雲) refused to take responsibility for the collapse of two buildings built by his company, he was able to start a new company, which received contracts to rebuild some local elementary schools. Of the NT$150 million appropriated for the reconstruction of these schools, 92 percent came from the Ministry of Education. What on earth made the ministry decide to entrust the lives of young children to a contractor with such a poor safety record? Was it simply an oversight or was it the result of an under-the-table deal? An investigation must be launched immediately to give the public an answer.

It is truly worrying that the above examples of corruption and misconduct may be just the tip of the iceberg. The public must take comfort -- scant as it is -- that at least some of the wrongdoing is coming to light and that swift and hefty judicial sanctions are being imposed. Wu received two life sentences and an eight-year sentence, plus a NT$22 million fine. Given the way Taiwan courts handle appeals, however, there is no guarantee that he will ever actually face such penalties but at least a precedent has been set. These are things one did not dare to dream about under the KMT regime, which excelled in mouthing pious platitudes after each disaster without actually doing anything in between to prevent another calamity.