It is now more than one year since an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 on the Richter scale ravaged central Taiwan, yet many families are still living in temporary shelters and viewing the onset of winter with despair. What has gone wrong with the government's much-vaunted plan to rebuild the devastated areas?
Things started so well. Mere hours after the earthquake struck at 1:47 A.M. on the morning of September 21, 1999, help was on the way, not only from the unaffected parts of Taiwan, but from the four corners of the globe. Money began to pour in. The army mobilized, keeping roads open and distributing tents and other necessities. The great charity organiza tions swung into action, bringing physical and spiritual succor to thousands of bereft and deprived inhabitants.
At that time, nobody knew the full extent of the tragedy. It was not until much later that the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) released final figures showing that 2,440 people were killed and 54 missing, most of them from Nantou County, with Taichung County in second place. But even in those first moments of terror and uncertainty, an air of optimism diluted the surrounding gloom. With so much help available, Taiwan would surely soon be on its feet again.
Not so. One year on, many people are still homeless, forced to live in temporary accommodations of varying degrees of comfort and utility, despite the fact that there is a cash mountain available to help them. Many people who lost their jobs as the result of the quake are still unemployed. And many--far too many--are killing themselves out of sheer despair.
A survey released in September this year by the National Alliance for Post-earthquake Reconstruction (NAPR), a non -partisan watchdog group set up in October 1999, found that the victims they spoke to gave the new government a derisorily low mark for its rebuilding efforts. Nor does anyone pretend that this is an overreaction; indeed, things reached a point where ROC President Chen Shui-bian felt obliged to make a public apology to them during his fourth regular scheduled press conference in September.
What went wrong? First, money--not too little but, paradoxically, too much. Less than a month after the earthquake, the previous KMT government formed the Cabinet's 9-21 Reconstruction Committee and empowered it to direct rebuilding efforts under the leadership of the then vice premier. The government also recognized that it would need machinery to monitor the inflow of donations and expenditure of funds, so last October, in partnership with various nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), it set up the 9-21 Earthquake Disaster Reconstruction Foundation (EDRF).
The foundation had its work cut out right from the start. According to figures published in September this year by the MOI, donations eventually totaled NT$32.6 billion (US$1.05 billion), of which NT$13.5 billion (US$435.5 million) came from the central government, NT$7.6 billion (US$245.1 million) from various local governments, and NT$11.5 billion (US$371 million) from the public.
But according to the NAPR, which is independent of the government, the total amount should be approximately NT$37 billion (US$1.2 billion). Vice Minister of the Interior Lin Chung-sen accounts for the discrepancy of some NT$5 billion (US$161.3 million) by saying that a few donations were erroneously recorded twice as having been given to different organi zations. He also blames miscalculation of the amount of interest that the fund would generate. The Control Yuan, Taiwan's equivalent of the ombudsman, has now become involved, but it is obviously going to take time before all interested parties can agree on a set of accounts.
Discrepancies aside, it seems that the present government has not handled the work of reconstruction any better than its predecessor, despite being awash with money. Tsao Wei-hao is vice secretary-general of the 9-21 Earthquake Victims League, formed in Taichung City immediately after the quake, which claims to represent approximately a million victims across the island, and his experience has led him to the conclusion that in many ways this government is worse. "The earthquake exposed long-term structural faults in Taiwan's politics and economy," he says. "Ordinary victims who lack clout have found themselves totally powerless when fighting for justice."
Why does he say that? The government allocates central funds for major public construction projects either directly or by channeling it through local governments in the most seriously affected areas of Chiayi County, Nantou County, Taichung County, and Taichung City. But donations are another story. Cheng Wen-lung of the Taipei Bar Association points out that deficiencies in the existing law make it difficult to supervise the means by which NGOs allocate money. Donations flowing into the government system became subject to existing audit mechanisms, at least on paper, but many people did not trust the government to get the math right. This is the main reason why the NAPR was formed by bodies and individuals independent of the government: to monitor official handling of all that cash. Lee Yuan-tseh, president of Academia Sinica and the alli ance's convener, admitted as much, and the ongoing dispute about the exact amount that should be in the kitty suggests there was good reason for skepticism.
The practical result of the machinery thus created is that donations flowing into the government system from whatever source now end up with local governments in the worst hit areas. The MOI is responsible for accounting for donations received by the central government, but county councils have the constitutional power to hold county governments accountable for the allocation of the funds they receive. On the other hand, the county governments themselves are supposed to monitor donations allocated to subordinate cities and townships, but they have not been doing that effectively, especially where invisible forces pervert the claims of disaster victims.
This is where the story starts to get very murky indeed. Wu Chao-feng, chief of Nantou County's Chungliao township, has been arrested and charged with embezzlement of relief goods and NT$16 million (US$516,130) in cash. Chen Kuo -hsiung, chief of Jenai township, also in Nantou County, has been indicted for corruption for allegedly exaggerating the reconstruction budget by 180 percent and favoring certain companies for rebuilding projects. These are but two examples; countless others have featured in the media. In September, Hsieh Chi-cheng, EDRF's executive director, bewailed to a United Daily News reporter the fact that funds had been misallocated and misused all over the place. A month later, a special team of one hundred prosecutors raided twenty locations and claimed to have unearthed evidence implicating numerous Nantou County officials in corrupt practices related to post-quake reconstruction work.
Hsieh Chi-cheng complains that "Taiwan's reconstruction is all about politics," and Tsao Wei-hao agrees, saying that the purchase of support from local factions who can in turn deliver votes at election time is the predominant objective of all Taiwan's political parties. He argues that only the publication of proper accounts can stop the making of under-the-table deals designed to benefit contractors and small-time politicians rather than the dispossessed.
Fortunately, the dispossessed have found some doughty champions, none of them with the government. One of them is Wang Tzu-hua, director of the Puti Evergreen Community. "Taiwan's political environment erodes social justice and dam ages society," he says "That's why I don't want any financial support from the government. I'm afraid of this community becoming a political football. My only goal is to take care of Puli's elderly, who are easily overlooked by the authorities." His community was established with the help of donations from Japan's YWCA and the Bank of Overseas Chinese. "Victims don't have to pay us anything, but we've been doing fine, thanks to all the wonderful people who come and visit and make donations."
Wang is doing an excellent job. There are now seventy-five old people living in the shelter, down from a post-quake high of three hundred. Their average age is seventy, and they receive round-the-clock care from ten permanent staffers. Rooms are set aside for Christian and Buddhist worship, and there is a small health center and recreation room. Each one- or two -bedroom unit has its own air conditioner, refrigerator, and TV. All the furnishings and fittings were donated by private enterprises or organizations such as the Red Cross.
But the future is cloudy. The land on which the community stands is owned by the Taiwan Sugar Corporation, which has granted it a two-year lease. The community will be forced to leave when the lease runs out, and some politicians are already eyeing the land. "I really do want this place to become a permanent community for Puli's elderly," Wang says. "But the politicians who visited us only seemed to care about votes. Not one of them is really looking into the victims' problems and trying to solve them." His face breaks into a tired smile. "Thank goodness there are always a few dumb people who do stupid things like helping others."
But why, when there is so much money apparently available, should it be left up to the Wangs of this world to aid the needy? For cash donations were only part of the story. Loans on favorable terms were also made available. Immediately after the 9-21 Post-Earthquake Reconstruction Temporary Act was passed in January this year, the Central Bank of China (CBC) was instructed to release NT$100 billion (US$3.23 billion) in loans to victims to rebuild their homes. But Tsao Wei-hao says that so far, only NT$27 billion (US$871 million) of that has been loaned, all of it for the purpose of buying replacement homes, not reconstructing the old ones. "People who are in a position to borrow money from the bank have higher economic standing--lawyers, doctors, and so on," he says. "Most victims have yet to see one dollar from the government. The current policy benefits only banks and builders."
The central government, stung by these criticisms, eventually directed the CBC to release a total of NT$320 billion (US$10.3 billion) in housing loans, but the 9-21 Earthquake Victims League scoffs that this was only to help developers solve the problem of too many empty homes islandwide. "The banks still won't lend anything to, say, indigenous people on lower incomes," Tsao claims. "Even if they're lucky enough to get a loan, they usually have no way of paying back the debt secured on the old damaged house as well as the new one."
The government then decided to distribute NT$3 billion (US$96.8 million) through the EDRF in March this year, earmarking it for victims who needed to obtain a bank loan, but even this measure failed to assist worst-case victims who had lost their jobs as well as their homes as the result of the earthquake. "They are the people who really need government assistance," Tsao maintains. "The government's subsidizing of commercial loans is worthless to them, as long as the bankers have the final say over who gets what."
Why doesn't the government lean on the banks and persuade them to take a more generous view? "The DPP government treats the banks in exactly the same way the KMT used to," Tsao says. On the one hand, it is afraid of further weakening the banking system at a time when the economy is doing poorly and more and more cases of nonperforming loans are coming to light. On the other hand, the new government likes to win elections as much as anyone, so it is concentrating its relief efforts on the construction of public housing for victims.
Despite the good intentions behind the provision of public housing, it is not likely to prove a long-term solution. Public housing is subsidized, not free. And much of it is being built in areas deemed less vulnerable to earthquakes, obliging those who want it to uproot and move away from their homes, families, and friends. Critics say it helps developers, not the home less.
A lot of people see Taiwan's developers as a major part of the problem. Many victims are seeking compensation from the companies that built their devastated homes, alleging shoddy construction materials and methods, but there have been few successful lawsuits. The MOI estimates that more than 51,000 buildings collapsed during or after the quake, while some 54,000 are severely damaged. So far, however, only one case has been resolved. This concerned an apartment block in Hsinchuang, Taipei County, which collapsed, killing forty-five people and leaving one hundred fifty families homeless.
Under the settlement, the families of each deceased will receive NT$5.1 million (US$164,500), while the injured get NT$600,000 (US$19,355). The company also handed over a check for NT$180 million (US$5.8 million) to the Consumers' Foundation, an NGO that represented the residents in a linked suit against the developer's chief construction foreman, who received a seven-year prison sentence for negligence. "It isn't a very satisfactory outcome," admits Consumer Foundation Secretary-General Su Ching-hsia. "But the ongoing negotiations placed such extreme stress on the families of the dead and injured that we reached a compromise just to be shot of it all."
Education was also badly hit by the disaster. In Nantou County alone, the Bureau of Education lists 182 schools at the elementary and junior-high levels that need to be wholly or partly rebuilt. Approximately 140 schools islandwide have been "adopted" by NGOs with funds amounting to NT$6.7 billion (U$216 million), but 77 schools remain the responsibility of the Ministry of Education (MOE), which has NT$9.2 billion (US$297 million) earmarked for reconstruction projects. Work is proceeding slowly. So far, the only schools that have been completely rebuilt are Jenhe, Yungchang, and Tili Elementary Schools in Nantou County, the first two sponsored by the Fubon Commercial Bank and the last by King Car Educational Foundation.
Huang Tsung-hui, chief of Nantou County's Bureau of Education, complains about the red tape that delays the process of reconstruction. For example, the Government Procurement Law provides that invitations to bid for public projects must be advertised for two months before closure. But according to Lee Jui-hua, coordinator of public relations and news for the Tzu Chi Foundation, Taiwan's most prominent Buddhist charity, so far the MOE has granted Tzu Chi permission to proceed with the work of rebuilding eleven schools in response to appeals from local people.
"This shows the government is trying to bypass the strict letter of the law and speed things up," says Tsai Wen-hsiung, principal of Chaokuang Elementary School in Tsaotun township, Nantou County, also sponsored by the Tzu Chi Foundation. Chaokuang should be rebuilt by September next year, at which time students will have a new campus housing thirty classes of thirty-five students each and equipped with up-to-date computer facilities. For the moment, however, pupils must study in temporary premises provided by the MOE.
According to Lee Jui-hua, Tzu Chi is paying for fifty-five schools to be rebuilt at a total estimated cost of NT$8 billion (US$258 million). Twenty-two of them are expected to be completed by the end of next year. But in some cases, there is no progress at all to report. One such case is Neihu Elementary School, with only six classes, in Nantou County. The government is responsible for this school but, says principal Fang Hsi-ching, "We are still having discussions with officials to resolve various problems relating to ownership of the school's land. This is tough on the students, who are forced to study in damaged classrooms because there's no place for the school to move."
A survey carried out by NAPR this September showed that some 20 percent of quake victims lost their jobs as the result of the disaster, and more than 36 percent of jobless victims had not yet found a stable job with sufficient income to support their families. The unemployment situation is one of the most serious complaints among quake victims, and the same survey showed that over 30 percent of victims suffering from depression attributed their disability to unemployment. More than one in ten quake survivors are thought to suffer from posttraumatic stress disorder, with symptoms ranging from disturbing flashbacks and emotional numbness to extreme agitation, insomnia, and paranoia.
This September, the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) announced a plan to invest NT$2.8 billion (US$90.3 million) in earthquake reconstruction projects, with a view to promoting local employment. The CLA hopes to bring more than 20,000 quake victims back into the active labor force with this program. "We're trying to create job opportunities in the public and private sectors in the worst-affected areas, and keeping the unemployment situation under review at the same time," says Lin Tsong-ming, director-general of the CLA's Employment and Vocational Training Administration. "That way, the CLA can provide maximum information to job-seekers and employers while we try to accelerate reconstruction work."
Local governments also provide a number of short-term training programs in the disaster areas, while encouraging employers who want to hire staff to put people from the quake region at the top of their lists. The training is tailored to the needs of local industries, including cooking, hardware engineering, horticulture, software applications, hairstyling, and con struction. It is free and, during the half-year training period, each trainee is eligible for a government subsidy of NT$12,000 (US$387) a month. Because that is inadequate to support a family, most trainees attend only at the weekends and spend the rest of the week away from home, either working, if they are lucky, or looking for work.
Chen Chien-erh, director of the Labor Division of Nantou County's Bureau of Social Affairs, says that the central government has allocated NT$40 million (US$1.3 million) to job-training programs. "We've opened more than a hundred classes, of between thirty and forty people, and we work closely with vocational schools, training centers, and NGOs in the Nantou area," he says. He admits, however, that he does not have any data on whether these efforts have contributed to the relief of unemployment, nor does he know precisely how many people have enrolled in the classes.
Sometimes victims can take the pressures no longer. Lee Hsueh-ho, 36, hanged himself at a temporary shelter in the worst-hit area of Puli after being out of work for almost a year. The situation is continually monitored by the Tsaotun Psychiatric Center, under the Department of Health, which is responsible for the mental rehabilitation of Nantou's quake survivors.
"Two hundred and seven people in the Nantou area attempted suicide between the day after the earthquake and June 30 this year," says the center's superintendent, Chen Kuai-le. "Suicide has been a particularly serious issue since February. We've worked closely with the village leaders to set up a referral system, and we provide suicide-prevention materials through the media. We really do try to reach out to potential suicides and their families."
Between November 1999 and May this year, nearly twelve thousand students received counseling, and in just two months this summer, the center's staff made more than a thousand home visits. A twelve-year-old girl who could not bring herself to enter a classroom after the earthquake is now back to normal school life, thanks to the counseling she received, and similar success stories are legion.
Staff also man two twenty-four-hour telephone hot lines, and the numbers of suicide cases are diminishing. But Chen recognizes that there is a long way to go. "Mental rehabilitation is a long-term process with these victims," she says. "We're still working on it, even though we don't get enough money from the government, because it's such an important part of the rehabilitation process for quake survivors." These problems are likely to endure long afterward. "For most quake victims, the primary sources of stress and depression now are keeping up with mortgage payments, and unemployment," says Lin Chi -hsiang, a psychiatrist at Fengyuan Hospital in Taichung County.
The Control Yuan published a report in September on the anniversary of the quake. One of the commissioners responsi ble for the report, Louis Chao, said at the subsequent press conference that the report highlighted government inefficiency in carrying out relief work. Lay people found it reassuring to have such a powerful ally weigh in on their side, but how far the Control Yuan's criticisms will result in change for the better is a moot point. Tsao Wei-hao of the 9-21 Earthquake Victims League argues that "this quake has exposed our unjust social systems. Victims are the losers, fighting for justice and fairness. I worry that the social schism is actually widening, and I don't know when the people are going to stand up and fight."
Many victims remain in a pretty bad way, is how he sums it up. Homeless, jobless, and troubled in mind, they can only wait and hope that the government will organize and implement a better plan for rebuilding their lives. Meanwhile the fight goes on, led by people like Tsao Wei-hao and Puti Evergreen Community's Wang Tzu-hua. There is little prospect of an armistice anytime soon.