Officials of the Council of Agricul-ture yesterday admitted that relations between the authorities and farmers' associations have turned sour since the Ministry of Finance launched a monetary reform campaign aimed at local financial institutions in mid-August.
Agricultural officials said that the tension between the DPP administration and the local farmers' associations was obvious, and the forthcoming elections of legislators as well as mayors and county magistrates have complicated the confrontation.
The Bureau of Monetary Affairs under the finance ministry and the Central Deposit Insurance Corp (中央存保) on Aug. 10 put under supervision 36 local financial institutions, 27 of which were credit departments of farmers' associations.
In early September, the finance ministry announced that 35 local financial institutions, mostly credit departments of farmers' associations, would be taken over by public banks in mid-September. Employees of these associations, being laid off without proper compensation, took to the streets to protest against the indifference of the authorities.
Farmers' associations were traditionally strongholds of political parties in terms of votes. Well aware of the associations' role in the Dec. 1 elections, Minister of Finance Yen Ching-chang (顏慶章) and Chairman Chen Hsi-huang (陳希煌) of the Council of Agriculture in the past weeks have visited executives of several farmers' associations in Pingtung, Kaohsiung and Tainan.
The opposition parties, on the other hand, have sought to secure votes through their old connections. Former agricultural officials of the KMT-ruling era also increased contacts with their old acquaintances at the farmers' associations.
The Council of Agriculture is trying hard to win favor from the farmers' associations. Chen has given his personal guarantee that the authorities won't institute another round of clean-up reforms at farmers' associations credit departments, as had been rumored.
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