Several days ago the Internet was abuzz regarding a photograph of former department of health minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) sitting on the MRT, speaking on the phone with his mask pulled down. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said that Yaung was observing social distancing, and that the public should refrain from engaging in a witch hunt.
Taiwan is a free society, and does not operate by the same rules as dictatorial China, yet the kind of mentality instilled during the Martial Law era means that Taiwanese are possibly closer to China when it comes to respecting human rights than we might otherwise want to admit.
Taiwanese are feeling pretty good about the nation’s pandemic response. We say: “Taiwan can help” and donate masks overseas, but until the population has been vaccinated, we must not be too complacent.
I recently returned from the US, and had to home quarantine for 14 days. I found myself a little unnerved by the witch hunt mentality and the vestiges of past indoctrination that still manifest in the nation’s culture.
I recently read about a migrant worker who was quarantined in Kaohsiung. He was caught on camera leaving his room for eight seconds and was fined NT$100,000. The rationale behind the stiff fine was that he had contravened the rules, and if he was not punished, then others might step out for eight minutes, then 80 minutes and so on.
CNN in the US and NHK in Japan reported this story, with NHK expressing surprise that the Taiwanese media did not question the fine’s severity; I, too, was surprised that my friends here accepted it unquestioningly.
I live in rural Hualien County, in a free-standing house with a garden and a grass verge at the front and back of the house separating the property from the road by at least 6m. On the second day of my home quarantine, I noticed some weeds in the garden and went to pull them up. After all, I could see nobody around.
Suddenly, I heard someone call out: “You can’t leave the house if you’re quarantining.”
It was my neighbor, a professor, who had gone into his garden to water his flowers. He was standing more than 10m away from me.
Unsure of where I stood on the matter, I wrote to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, asking them whether home quarantine regulations extended to not being able to go into one’s own garden.
Ten days later I received a response, saying that in rural areas a person quarantining in their own home can go out into the garden if access to that garden is prohibited to anyone else. The question, then, was whether I allowed anyone to go through the garden.
Japan, the UK and the US are struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic because they have prioritized respect for human rights and freedom.
According to CNN, the Taiwanese government’s early ban on travel from China and its effective contact tracing measures have been key to the success of its response.
I attended Chen’s father’s classes on family law and succession under the Civil Code. He would emphasize legal principles, not the letter of the law.
I had thought that lawyers just memorized laws, and would understand legal principles from this process. I am sure Chen took this approach himself in his dealing with the pandemic.
Former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) once said that 23 million Taiwanese owe their freedom to the 400,000 people who allowed themselves to be quarantined.
In the same way, no one should be resorting to witch hunts. If people can forgive others, then respect for human rights and privacy will be something that everyone learns from this pandemic.
Lai Yu-che is a retired professor and a farmer in Hualien.
Translated by Paul Cooper
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