Environmental activists once believed that the DPP's victory in the presidential election last year would lead to the establishment of a new paradigm -- a government that put environmental concerns at the heart of the administration.
On the eve of the anniversary of the DPP's taking the helm of national leadership, however, environmentalists bitterly criticized the DPP-led government, saying it has failed to address environmental problems in a new way.
"The DPP did not use the handover of power to alter the former KMT-led government's old model -- that economic development takes precedence -- to a new way of thinking for years promoted by the DPP, which emphasizes the significance of sound environmental policy," said Lai Wei-chieh (賴偉傑), secretary-general of the Green Citizens' Action Alliance (GCAA, 綠色公民行動聯盟).
Taking the resumption of the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant (核四) as an example, Lai says that the government eventually gave in to opposition parties after a month-long political struggle without trying hard enough to win the public relations battle for the hearts and minds of the people. According to Lai, the government missed an opportunity to shape public opinion by introducing a new energy policy to Taiwan.
Although Lin Jun-yi (林俊義), a well-known anti-nuclear activist who has good relations with the DPP, took over as head of the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) last May 20, his efforts to halt the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant failed to receive the necessary support from officials at higher levels.
The GCAA's Lai said that anti-nuclear activists are terribly disappointed that the DPP-led government has not even tried to review out-of-date energy policies.
"It's ironic that the DPP-led government has apparently forgotten the experts who wrote such an innovative environmental white paper for Chen Shui-bian (
Anti-nuclear activists complain that the type of thinking that drives the present DPP-led government is nearly identical to that of the former KMT regime.
To facilitate the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, Taiwan Power Company (Taipower,
Environmentalists say that Taipower's strategy in Kungliao was exactly the one used by the former KMT-led government to compensate fishermen in Tamsui (
The project for creating the new town was designed to satisfy home-buyers in a hungry real-estate market. The ambitious project, however, turned out to be a failure because of the bad quality of the living environment and the lack of infrastructure. Surplus residential units still lie abandoned there and the government is continuing to pay off loans related to the project.
The failure of the Tamhai development plan resulted in the censure of several Cabinet agencies by the Control Yuan on May 1 for the unnecessary waste of money and the destruction of land. Activists believe that the damaged coastal environment in Tamsui might never recover and that the local fishing industry is damaged beyond repair.
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