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Analysis: Amendments to farmers, fishermen's laws reflect strong political interests

Two newly passed amendments that would allow directors of farmers and fishermen' associations to stay in their posts indefinitely have shown that the organizations -- meant to be dedicated to the service of farmers and fishermen -- still have strong political overtones.

"I actually disapprove of the changes contained in the two amendments because they are regressive policies," a member of a farmers' association in Taipei County told the Taipei Times on the sidelines of a meeting on Friday.

He gave his surname as Lin, but refused to reveal which association he works for because his view differs from that of his director.

The amendments canceled the three-term limits for the associations' directors and lowered the requirement for renewal of their employment.

The meeting, attended by approximately 200 directors of the associations across the country, was called by a group of pan-blue lawmakers in a bid to discourage the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) plan to reconsider the approved bills.

Hsiao Han-chun (蕭漢俊), director of the Kaohsiung County Farmers' Association, argued against overturning the amendments at the meeting.

"A professor can teach in a college for 20 to 30 years, and a manager can run a company for a long time if they do their job well. Why can't we have an indefinite term?" Hsiao said.

Upon hearing what Hsiao said, Lin said that "if [Hsiao's] analogy is right, then what's the point of the Constitution setting term limits for the president?"

In accordance with the Farmers' Association Law (農會法) and the Fishermen's Association Law (漁會法), association directors have a major say in personnel appointments and managing the associations' business activities, including economic assistance, credit and insurance services.

Under the old law, the directors may have their term of office extended once. To qualify for a second renewal, they would have to earn a performance rating of "excellent." This requirement has been lowered to a rating of "good" -- the second-highest level in a scale of five -- under the amendment.

The previous law also stipulated that association staffers who have been indicted and convicted during a second trial should be fired from their posts. This has been changed to not relieving association staffers who are standing trial until a final verdict is rendered.

"As a result of the revisions, about 90 percent of directors who earned ratings of `good' would be able to hold on their position in the association indefinitely," said Woo Rhung-jieh (吳榮杰), a professor at National Taiwan University.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers, who strongly supported the amendments, had argued that the bills aim to retain valuable talent in the associations.

The DPP, however, said that the KMT was only interested in raising its electoral profile at the expense of farmers' and fishermen's interests.

"I couldn't agree with the DPP more. It's not an exaggeration to say that the ratio of KMT supporters to DPP supporters within the associations is nine to one," Lin said.

Commenting on the link between the associations and the KMT, Tsai Hong-chin (蔡宏進), a professor at Asia University, said that the relationship had its roots in more than 50 years of KMT rule.

Under the law, the associations are classified as civic organizations that assume sole responsibility for their profits and losses.

Despite the regulations, the main source of their funding is the government while they assist the government in implementing its agricultural policies, Tsai said.

"Before financial liberalization [beginning in the 1980s], the associations derived most of their funding through deposit taking and extending agricultural loans, but their credit business has declined [after the liberalization]," he said.

The personal connections built through these credit departments, however, remain a strong political force, as evidenced by an organized protest on Nov. 23, 2002, against the government's financial reform plan that would take over the credit departments of the 36 associations.

The protest, led by the Taiwan Provincial Farmers' Association, fishermen's associations and pan-blue politicians, drew more than 100,000 people.

"The take-over plan was proposed to resolve [the associations' credit departments'] bad-loan problems. Instead of being hailed, it incurred opposition from the directors of the associations and the pan-blue camp, reflecting the fact that their interests were closely linked to the credit departments," Woo said.

To make the associations more "neutral" on politics, Woo suggested that the associations be transformed into cooperatives, with their funding coming frommembers, who would also directly elect the directors.
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