Why do the Yunlin County voters depend on Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to speak for them on the flood control budget? Where are the legislators elected from the region? ("Ma, Cabinet clash over flood fund," June 21, page 3).
Where are the legislators who supported funds for flood control in Taipei in 2001, but will not support funds for their own region this time around?
Where are the legislators who have supported the unequal distribution of resources all these years and discriminated against their own region, their own people?
Where are the legislators who supported an electoral district that will make the votes cast by residents in Kinmen and Matsu worth a hundred times more than their own? (Kinmen elected one seat for 3,000 residents, while other district elected one for 300,000 residents).
Where are those legislators supporting these positions only because that was their party's position, while totally disregarding what they were elected for -- to look after the interests of their constituents?
Isn't it time for the people in the affected regions suffering from flood damage to start questioning their elected representatives? For the relatives and loved ones of those who died in the flood, the farmers and those who suffered heartbreaking loses -- where are their legislators?
Whose side are these legislators on? The KMT's or the people of the region's? And if these legislators choose the party line against voters' interests, isn't it time to vote these people out of office?
Isn't it time for the people to protest in front of these legislators' offices and residences and to demand accountability?
Chen Ming-Chung
Chicago, Illinois
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