Cabinet officials held a press conference yesterday in which they sought to highlight the difference between the proposed Suhua Freeway (蘇花高) and an alternative highway project, a day after comments by Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) in Hualien County reignited debate on the subject.
Cabinet Spokeswoman Vanessa Shih (史亞平) told reporters yesterday afternoon that media coverage of the premier’s new proposal, in which the government would resume construction of a part of the freeway that was “less controversial” as early as the end of the year, was “false and misleading.”
Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國), who was in attendance, said the new project should be viewed as the government’s attempt to improve transportation on the east coast given the frequent landslides and blockages that occur on the Suhua Highway (蘇花公路).
Showing reporters a map of the nation’s highways, Mao said that between 2004 and 2005 the section of the highway linking Nanao (南澳) to Hoping (和平) was closed for 32 days while travel on the highway was restricted to one-way traffic for 108 days.
Guaranteeing the “basic need for safe transportation” of residents in the east should be the first priority, he said, adding that the government considered this problem to be an issue of “social justice.”
Mao said it was unavoidable that the alternative highway alignment and the Suhua Freeway project would “overlap,” given the limited possibilities for route construction in the east.
“In the past, the public considered the Suhua Freeway project a tradeoff between economic development and environmental protection, but in terms of Taiwan’s current economic development, we should complete this alternative route,” he said.
“This is what a responsible government should do,” he said, adding that it was possible to strike a balance between social justice and environmental protection.
Earlier yesterday, environmentalists staged a protest in front of the Executive Yuan, atttacking Liu for seeking to “call the shots and act as president,” adding that Liu had broken President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) campaign promise to explore alternatives before deciding whether to construct the Suhua Freeway.
Late on Sunday, senior officials clarified the premier’s remarks and said the plan constituted a project to build an “alternative road.”
“The Cabinet is playing word games ... It is repackaging the Suhua Freeway as an ‘alternative route’ by breaking it up so that the freeway can be built in sections,” Green Party Taiwan Secretary-General Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) said.
Saying that Liu had decided on the construction before an environmental impact assessment (EIA) could be conducted, Pan added that “The premier is doing whatever he wants and is refusing to talk with the public ... the old Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] is back.”
“The premier must consider the environmental impact assessment panel to be a rubber stamp if he thinks that the construction project can be launched before the end of this year,” Pan said.
“It is also nonsense for Liu to say that this is the ‘least controversial’ section of the road, since it will cut directly across a conservation area,” Pan said.
“With the extent of global warming today, we must change the old belief that man should conquer nature,” he said.
“To Suhua supporters, the government says this construction is the Suhua Freeway; to those who are against it, the government says it is an ‘alternative route.’ As the KMT government’s support plunges, the Cabinet is trying to please both sides,” said Tsai Chung-yueh (蔡中岳), a native of Hualien studying at National Taipei University.
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