Imagine that you travel to a foreign country and are staying in a hotel. One night, when you are about to go to bed, the police knock on the door and request access to your room for a random check to see if you're sleeping with a lady of the night.
Puzzled and then annoyed, you hope that they might be content upon finding nothing in your room. Much to your surprise, they come back for a second check at 3 o'clock in the morning.
This unfortunate scenario is real and is happening here in Taipei City.
TAIPEI TIMES FILE PHOTO
After Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
Lai Wen-tsung, chairman of the Taipei City Hotelier Union and owner of the Shang Lin Motel in the Wanhua district, said that the city's efforts harass their guests and is a violation of privacy.
"Although we agree with the mayor's determination to stamp out the sex industry, the way they are carrying out the task is simply disgraceful and inflicts serious injury on our business," Lai said.
According to Lai, his hotel's occupancy rate has dwindled from 30 percent to 10 percent.
Lai added that since September the union has received more than 10 calls a day from members complaining about the crackdown.
"Some of them told me that their foreign customers were disgusted by the police crackdown and asked them whether Taiwan is a police state," Lai said.
Lee Shao-pin (
"There are 288 legally registered hotels and motels in the city. Why don't the police concentrate on raiding the 30 illegal ones?" Lee said.
Even if illegal sex is taking place in legally registered hotels or motels, Lee said, it would be unfair to label them "sex hotels" simply because they are sex venues.
Lee added that some of the union's members have told them that illegal proprietors can easily dodge police raids because they have the support of powerful city councilors or lawmakers.
Undaunted by the complaints of hoteliers, Wang Cho-chun (
"Statistics show that most of the illegal sex trade takes place in hotels or motels. We apologize for causing any inconvenience to their guests while conducting the inspections. However, we mean it when we say we want to stamp out the sex industry," he said.
Nevertheless, Wang said that they will carefully review the times of the raids and the demeanor of the police carrying them out.
City councilors have been pointing fingers at each other since Ma on Tuesday publicly requested that police probe rumors that municipal police have been colluding with city councilors and the media to run the sex industry.
After remaining tight-lipped for weeks, KMT City Councilor Yang Shih-chiu (楊實秋) cited a media report on the council floor on Friday identifying DPP City Councilor Lo Tsung-sheng (羅宗勝) as one of the city councilors whom he claimed is involved in the sex industry.
Yang also said that another DPP city councilor, Lee Chien-chung (李建昌), was colluding with Lo.
Both Lo and Lee strongly denied Yang's allegations and threatened to sue for defamation.
Lee yesterday told the Taipei Times that he would wait until next Wednesday when the city council holds its weekly meeting to decide how to proceed on the matter.
"I don't rule out the possibility of pressing a slander charge against Yang, although legal proceedings are time-consuming," he said.
Commenting on why Yang made the accusation against him, Lee said that a logical reason might be that Yang did it to get back at him after a heated argument over the issue two weeks ago on the council floor.
Han Ming-sheng (
"Yang has been playing dirty by first accusing the DPP caucus of being involved in the sex industry without naming names. While some of its members come out to claim their innocence, he raised suspicion on the part of the public that those who don't come out are scared to do so and therefore are actually involved in the sex industry," he said.
Lo pledged on the council floor Friday that he would step down as a city councilor if evidence proves that he is involved in the sex industry.
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