Premier Su Castrates Local Self-Rule, Couldn't Care about Slapping Lin Chia-lung in the Face

 Premier Su Castrates Local Self-Rule, Couldn't Care about Slapping Lin Chia-lung in the Face

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

March 16, 2020

 Translation of an Excerpt

As the epidemic tensions escalate, the Tsai government has staged endless stealth acts; when an act failed, it used railroading. Following the revision of the National Land Planning Act, the Cabinet proclaimed that certain provisions of the “Taichung City Ordinance on the Burning of Raw Coal” were null and void, thus providing cover for the Taichung coal-fired power plant, it without any fig leaf castrated the authority of local government in self-rule, trampling on people’s health and sustainable government. the “Taichung City Ordinance on the Burning of Raw Coal” has been in implementation for four years. The Tsai government has until today proclaimed that it is null and void. Is this innocent hindsight, or a high-handed approach to the end with a sudden change of mind?

The Cabinet’s move, in fact, is a slap in the face of Lin Chia-lung and Lee Chin-yung. The city ordinance on raw coal was drafted by Lin Chia-lung in 2016 while he was Taichung City mayor and went into effect after being passed by the City Council in the third reading. Now, Lin Chia-lung's reaction to this matter is "what happened in the past, consider it as dead today", completely adopting a political response. While the Tsai government has wholeheartedly provided cover to the Taichung coal-fired power plant, disregarding the health of Taichung citizens, not only forcing people to use their lungs for power generation, but also throwing out the window the international carbon reduction trends and national responsibilities in climate change.

When the DPP was in the opposition, it stressed the authority of local government in self-rule; now that it is in power, it nevertheless tramples local government to the ground for the convenience of doing what it desires to do. 

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