"The earthquake moved around picking kacak buildings out for destruction," Oktay Ekinci, chairman of the Architects Association of Turkey, said when he was interviewed after the Izmit earthquake killed 15,000 people in Turkey. His comment, unfortunately, fits Taiwan perfectly.
"Kacak" means "contraband" -- buildings built without permits or architectural plans and which do not conform to building regulations. They are erected in places where they should not be, such as riverbanks; they are not built with the requisite amounts of cement and steel.
In Turkey, more than half of all buildings belong to this category, built in violation of construction regulations.
The casualty count for Tuesday's earthquake, horrific as it is, is less than that in Turkey.
But the type of selective collapse of certain buildings here in Taiwan is nevertheless identical. Except for some old and decrepit buildings, those "sole collapsed" buildings on our streets by and large had problems of poor design and construction.
In the case of the buildings constructed by Han Construction Corp in Yunlin County, the reasons that led to the collapses were poor quality steel and cement. Even more shocking, empty cooking oil drums were found in the pillars of those buildings. When these defective Taiwan "kacak" buildings were picked out for destruction, it makes more sense to say it is a human-made rather than a natural disaster.
Turkish builders are often people with political connections who put profit above safety, and the cronyism and corruption of the government are the main reasons for the existence of "kacak" buildings. As a Turkish columnist commented: "Corruption kills people, not earthquakes."
In Taiwan, those who died in the "kacak" buildings are also the victims of the corruption and cronyism prevalent in Taiwan's government as well. How could construction licenses have been granted to these builders who apparently violated construction regulations? Corruption and a lazy government could be the problem.
Construction regulations released by the Ministry of the Interior (內政部) are clearly stated in the articles on Regulations Against Earthquakes (建築物耐震設計規定). But many are unenforced.
Tuesday's earthquake revealed the serious defects in Taiwan's construction industry and bureaucracy. What we can and should do now is follow the work done in Japan: increase quality control in the construction industry and enhance efforts to fight against government and industry corruption. Just as in Turkey, until cronyism is ended, there will be many problems in Taiwan, some ending in tragedy.
Shen Fu-hsiung is a member of the Legislative Yuan.
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