A woman from Kinmen's offshore islet Wuchiu yesterday appealed to President Chen Sui-bian (陳水扁) to help the islet's people improve their living conditions -- and she immediately received an encouraging response from the president.
"Mr. President, please help Wuchiu township!" the woman shouted to President Chen Sui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday morning at the National Conference on Social Welfare Service Development that has been organized by the Ministry of the Interior.
The woman, Kao Tan-hua (高丹華) yesterday attended the conference in Taipei as a representative of Wuchiu. As Chen was preparing to leave after delivering the conference's opening address, Kao suddenly got up and followed Chen, speaking loudly about Wuchiu residents' hardships because of the islet's poor public transportation and health care. She also asked the president not to move the nuclear-waste dumping site from Orchid Island to Wuchiu.
Chen simply replied by saying "I got the message."
But a few hours later, Minister of the Interior Yu Cheng-hsien (余政憲), after being told about the interlude, promised to visit the 0.6km2 islet next Tuesday on a fact-finding trip.
Kao told the media after the incident yesterday that she hadn't planned the move until she saw Chen.
The Wuchiu-born resident told reporters that Chen was the first president who has ever visited the islet to show his concern about the local living conditions. She said he should offer more assistance to the islet's residents than just a physical visit.
Wuchiu has only 40 residents and authorities are studying the possibility of relocating the heavily-criticized nuclear-waste dumping site in Orchid Island to the islet.
Yesterday evening, the Presidential Office issued a statement saying that, since Kao was kept far away from Chen yesterday morning, he could not really hear what Kao said, but he immediately instructed Minister of the Interior Yu to offer any necessary assistance.
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