Wang Chien-hsuan, president of the Control Yuan, couldn't give vent to his jeremiad. So he organized a group of 20 ombudsmen to start an independent inquiry into what caused the great flood disaster of August 8. Typhoon Morakot plodded across Taiwan in two days, leaving in its wake hundreds of people killed and two thirds of central and southern Taiwan under floodwaters more than five meters deep in many places. Record-breaking downpours continued for two days after the tropical rainstorm had left Taiwan. The floods triggered landslides that engulfed remote villages, with many of them destroyed or abandoned. Troops had to be mobilized to rescue and evacuate people trapped in their waterlogged homes. Many were buried alive in mudslides.
The chief ombudsman, in announcing the launching of an investigation to find out who are at fault for the tragedies caused in the aftermath of Morakot, which means Emerald in Thai, wreaked with Taiwan, deplored: “I wish to have a sword to hack all those who are responsible, but I don't know whom to hack.”
Wang, who considers himself a modern-day imperial censor of yore, was right. An imperial censor might have a sword granted by the emperor to execute any errant mandarin found corrupt or derelict of duty. Had he lived in Taipei while Taiwan was still a prefecture or a province of Qing or Manchu China, he certainly could have chopped a number of heads off. The truly lamentable trouble he has is that practically all of us are to blame.
The apparent cause of the worst disaster in a century is that half of Taiwan got one whole year's rainfall in a mere three days. No one can blame the skies for opening up to punish the people who have abused the Earth. Nor can we blame our weathermen for failing to predict accurately how Morakot could behave and how much rain would fall and where. Weather forecasting is a risky business at best. At the very least, they did the best they could. They can't be faulted for dereliction of duty.
Neither can local governments be held solely responsible for the delay in search and rescue as well as evacuation of flood victims for the very simple reason that they are not equipped to do so. Yang Chiu-hsing, magistrate of Kaohsiung, was blamed for being out of the country while the typhoon hit his southern county. He didn't know if the typhoon would hit when he departed. He could only cut short his tour to rush back home after the tropical storm had left. But even if he had been in Kaohsiung, the delays in rescue would have occurred just the same.
Should the central government be blamed? The typhoon wasn't brought to Taiwan by President Ma Ying-jeou or Premier Liu Chao-shiuan, albeit they did not handle its aftermath to the satisfaction of all the refugees from the floods and landslides; and both of them were panned by the critical press for their gaffes and double-takes.
A national disaster control center began operation at once. Though the line of communication was garbled at times between it and the local governments, resulting in the delay of mobilization of soldiers to help the victims, the entire search, rescue and relief operations were conducted, to say the least, not worse than the American disaster control following the attack of Hurricane Katrina on Louisiana in 2005. Few could blame the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for requiring our missions abroad to turn down offers of help, for it had been told by the disaster control center that no such aid was necessary. And those who manned the center honestly believed — apparently for lack of essential information — no foreign assistance was needed. Ma shouldn't be blamed for not issuing an emergency decree to better cope with the messy disaster, because it was unnecessary. Government officials can't be held to account for flimsy public works for flood control, because it was their predecessors who made the decision to build them. Contractors cut corners for profit, fully convinced their handiwork would withstand floods that were not as great as those that attacked on and after August 8. On the other hand, all of them are collectively responsible, or derelict of duty in a moral sense, for making the disaster worse. For one thing, they weren't vigilant enough. They didn't ensure that Taiwan was well prepared for ever more frequent and greater flood disasters. Worse still, they kept their eyes shut to the increasingly serious overdevelopment of land to Taiwan's ecological detriment. Forests were cleared wantonly for farming. Feeder roads crisscrossed mountains that should have been kept intact. Reservoirs were built without their catchment duly protected. The banks of rivers that feed the reservoirs were dug up for gravel, with the resultant silting compelling the release of the waters they were built to hold in time of typhoons. Squatters were allowed to build on hills and dangerous knolls. Luxury hotels were erected in the mountainside without a building license. Settlements were established in alluvial fans, one of them being the village of Siaolin in Yang's county that was annihilated in massive mudslides.
Not all of the victims are totally blameless, either. Some of them are squatters in the first place. Many refused to be evacuated, and the evacuation could not be forced. Quite a few blamed volunteer rescuers for coming to their rescue too late and for not bringing all the relief goods they wanted. It never occurred to these selfish people that the good Samaritans were working altruistically and voluntarily. Without their help as well as that of the good people of Taiwan who donated more than enough foods and relief goods, lavished cash contributions and provided free medical treatment, the great flood disaster would have been even greater.
Well, can the head of the nation's highest watchdog body single out anyone as the target of the public outcry? Yes, he is unable to point an accusing finger at someone as the chief culprit, for it's our society as a whole that has helped spawn probably the worst disaster in our brief history. What Taiwan needs is to stop recrimination and start reconstruction, while continuing to take better preventive measures to mitigate future disasters.
（本文刊載於98.08.17 The China Post 8版，本文代表作者個人意見）
楊朝祥
(
2018年4月24日 08:19
)
王順民
(
11月22日 15:22
)
劉新圓
(
2007年10月4日 15:04
)
