Along-running dispute between residents of the Taipei County township of Pinglin (坪林鄉) and government agencies involved in the construction of the Taipei-Ilan Freeway (北宜高), or Route 5 as it is also known, may have abated in recent weeks but the fallout has left many in the town rather frustrated.
The issue pitted the people of Pinglin against the Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), the
Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) and more recently the Taipei City Government. The issue has, according to the head of Pinglin Township Liang Jin-sheng (梁金生), been one of contradictions, political wrangling and misleading media coverage from the very beginning.
PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
"One week the EPA said this and the next it said that. One week it was reported that [Pinglin] wanted this and the next [we] wanted that. Then various politicians stepped in and it all got out of hand," Liang said. "The contradictions and media coverage only made the situation worse."
When complete the NT$60.1 billion freeway, which boasts the longest road tunnel in Asia -- the 12.5km Hsuehshan Tunnel -- will cut the car journey from the capital to Ilan, from the current two hours to a mere 40 minutes. Construction began in 1991 but was plagued with problems from the beginning. Cost reevaluations and
setbacks have played havoc with the project's completion date.
The most contentious issue of all, however, has been that of the status of the Pinglin access ramp. The controversial ramp was originally built by the Taiwan Area National Expressway Engineering Bureau (TANEEB) to be used solely as an access route for construction and emergency vehicles. On completion of the Taipei-Shihding section of the freeway late last year, however, Pinglin residents demanded public use of the access ramp.
Residents took to the streets to force a quick opening of the road. According to Liang, misleading media coverage led to an exaggeration of the issue and made the town look
ridiculous.
"The coverage made us out to be little but mad dogs. Nobody outside of the town bothered to think about us or take our side in the argument," Liang said. "The [media] made us not only look foolish but portrayed [the
residents of Pinglin] as the wrongdoers rather than the victims. All we wanted was the right to use the [ramp]."
Located roughly 30km southeast of Taipei midway along Route 9 -- the only artery from the capital to Ilan -- Pinglin is a sleepy backwater town with a population of 6,000. Famous for selling teas grown both locally and elsewhere in Taiwan to tourists, local government estimates said the town attracts between 3,000 and 5,000 visitors a week and that the local tea industry generates profits of NT$500 million per year.
The pro ramp-opening clique argued the road would be to everyone's benefit while the anti-road clique countered saying Pinglin wanted the road for financial reasons only.
"The argument that we wanted [the road] solely to boost tourism was rubbish," said the head of Pinglin Township. "People have been coming here for years on the old road and will continue to come whether we have a new road or not."
The MOTC caved in to popular demand in February this year and allowed Pinglin residents limited access to the road during the Lunar New Year holiday. The move enraged the peoples of both Ilan city and county, who were furious that the government agency would limit access to a public road.
"What was the MOTC doing? You build a road and it should be for everyone, you can't have a road that only certain people can use," said Ilan County cab driver Cheng Shih-jin (鄭石金). "As a taxpayer I should be able to use any road that has been built with public funds. To say I, or any other taxpayer can't use it was just ludicrous."
According to MOTC the road could not be opened to the general public because Pinglin sits in the middle of the watershed that feeds the nearby Feitsui Reservoir (翡翠水庫), which is used to supply a large percentage of Taipei City residents with tap water. The road's proximity to the nearby reservoir, it was argued, would lead to increased water pollution.
`dump site'
"It was worded as if Pinglin was a dump site. The report made it seem like there was garbage all over the streets and that [Pinglin residents] were dirty people who didn't care about anything but tourism," said tea store owner Peng Hsiang-tai (馮祥泰).
Last year the EPA filled yet another report but this time it gave the green light for the opening of the road on the grounds that road use was a minor cause of water
pollutants. The road was opened to the general public in mid-August. The biggest threat to the safety of Taipei's water was, according to the new EPA report, uncontrolled land use in the Pinglin area.
"The report stated that the biggest problem was not the road, but illegal farming and use of pesticides close to the reservoir, plus the setting up of illegal campsites on the reservoir's banks," said the EPA's deputy minister Tsay Ting-keui (蔡丁貴). "I would have to say heavy traffic on Route 9 is a bigger danger to the environment than the new freeway."
The EPA has since started monitoring Pinglin's campgrounds and illegal farms. Armed with aerial photographs of Pinglin and its environs EPA staff are
currently undertaking random environmental checks in the area.
Even before cars had begun to use the road, the Taipei City Government, which has jurisdiction over land in the watershed below 171m, stepped in and contradicted the EPA findings. In September Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) went on the offensive and attacked the EPA report stating that it was incorrect and filled with misleading data.
In an odd turn of events the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman enlisted the support of pan-green city councilors and called on the central government to resolve the issue. Whether by fault or design the central government has never openly stepped into the fray. Instead it left the EPA to decide when, or if the road should be opened. While angering many the move is seen by the EPA deputy minister as a well-calculated risk.
"Of course the central government didn't intervene. The EPA is a government body so why should the president need to step in and why shouldn't it agree with our findings?" he said.
whose counting?
Interference by Ma and other politicians has left many Pinglin residents angry. Life-long Pinglin residents like Liu Ming-ru (劉明如) believe that they have been exploited by politicians more interested in getting their faces on TV than the wellbeing of the town's inhabitants.
"When you take a moment to look at what happened it's embarrassing. All we wanted was the right to use the road. We didn't want politicians taking sides and we certainly didn't want to be at the center of [inane] political arguments," Liu said. "It makes me wonder who I'm
bothered to vote for come election time. For someone who cares? Or someone who wants to have their photograph taken?"
It's not just local residents who have been offended by the over-politicization of the issue. Former Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南), who is currently running for the office of Ilan County Magistrate, was dismayed as to how politicized the issue had become.
"The road was, and is meant to be for the people, but since certain politicians have gotten involved it has become far too political an issue to benefit anybody," Chen said. "I think that what happened is a fine example of just how easy it is to twist issues to suit one's needs. If the needs are votes, then sadly people like Lu Kuo-hua (呂國華) will, I'm afraid, continue to exploit the issue."
Traffic can now officially use the road, but the numbers are officially limited to 4,000 cars per day -- buses and trucks are still banned from using the ramp.
As for who's counting, well, that appears to be another matter entirely.
A report that appeared in a local Chinese-language paper last week said that on one day over 10,000 cars made use of the Pinglin interchange. When the Taipei Times visited the spot last week and inquired as to who counts the cars we were informed by a rather beleaguered security guard manning a checkpoint "it's not my job to count cars" and that "the job was done at the Pinglin Interchange Administration building."
Enquiries at the administration center in regard the counting of cars led to another dead end. We were told by another security guard, "There's nobody in the building."
So it seems that three years of bickering both for and against the opening of the Pinglin interchange boils down to the simple fact that, with the exception of vote-hungry politicians, nobody really seems to care who uses the road and who doesn't.
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