About 200 people who live within the boundaries of Kenting National Park in Pingtung County forced their way into the Legislative Yuan yesterday as an Internal Administration Committee meeting was in progress to protest against the National Park Act (國家公園法).
Holding signs that read “We want our right to survival” and “The National Park Act is illegitimate and unjust,” the residents forced their way through a side gate and tried to get into the meeting room as soon as they learned that the Internal Administration Committee had begun an article-by-article review of revisions to the act.
In recent weeks, the Internal Administration Committee has been reviewing amendment proposals made by both the Cabinet and lawmakers to the National Park Act, the first since it was enacted in 1972.
However, Kenting residents — many of whom lived in the area before it was designated a national park in 1982 — worry that the stricter regulations in the proposed amendments could limit their freedoms.
While in its current form Article 17 stipulates that construction or demolition of public or private buildings must obtain government approval, the proposed revision adds that repairs must also be approved by the authorities.
“My house is very old and I need to do repair work on it from time to time. Will I have to wait for my house to collapse if my application to renovate it is rejected?” a protester asked through a loudspeaker.
“We want lawmakers to hear what we have to say,” local borough chief Tsai Cheng-jung (蔡正榮) said. “There have been too many restrictions on our daily lives since Kenting National Park was created. It doesn’t make sense to make the laws even more strict.”
Tsai said the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) — which manages national parks — had not organized public hearings to hear residents’ opinions before making the proposals.
Police officers guarding the legislature attempted to prevent the protesters from entering the compound, but as there were only about a dozen police at the scene, the demonstrators were able to go in.
When protesters discovered that the doors to the meeting room were locked, they tried to get in through a connecting room next door, but were pushed back by police.
Protesters finally agreed to leave after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇), who presided over the meeting, called it off and asked the MOI to hold public hearings before any further reviews.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) said national parks should be divided into “urban” and “natural reserves.”
“In urban national parks, such as Kenting and Yangmingshan, where people have lived for generations, we should loosen restrictions to make it easier for residents,” she said. “For national parks with little human activity, such as Yushan National Park, however, we could make laws more strict to protect the ecosystem.”
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