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Updated Friday, October 2, 2009 9:16 am TWN, The China Post news staff

Much ado about nothing regarding the Poai district

Have you ever visited the isle of Capri? And its world-famous Grotto Azuro? If you have, you know Capri was where Augustus Caesar spent the last years of his life as the first emperor of the Roman Empire. He built a great palace overlooking an inaccessibly perpendicular cliff on the small island in the Bay of Naples, from which he could sneak down by a secret passage to the Blue Cave to enjoy a dip in the seawaters. The mouth of the cave, open to the sea, is invisible during high tide and the grotto is lit blue by reflected sunlight. Why did the great emperor, who gave the eighth month of the Gregorian calendar his name, lead a hush-hush life? He had assassination phobia.

Emperors and dictators used to have a similar abnormal fear. The first emperor of the Chin Dynasty, or Shi-huang-ti, even had hundreds of terracotta soldiers buried together with him for fear someone might try to assassinate him in his afterlife. Chiang Kai-shek had that phobia, too. But he and his son Chiang Ching-kuo, who was free of the pathological fear of assassins, did not stake out a large special district in Taipei for reasons of their personal security. Nor did Lee Teng-hui. Former President Chen Shui-bian, who is standing trial for corruption at the Taiwan high court, made sure no airplanes flew over what is called the Poai special district, perhaps because he was afraid China might send warplanes to strafe or bomb his offices and official residence.

Nobody believes President Ma Ying-jeou harbors any fear of assassins. Save his National Security Bureau bureaucrats. They are convinced that a tall building, located some 800 yards away from his official residence next door to the former Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Monopoly Bureau, threatens the personal security of their commander-in-chief. With a sniper's rifle, the brass hats theorize, an assassin from on high may pick off President Ma walking around the yard of his official home. The conclusion is obvious: Ipinwan (一品苑), the 23-story apartment estate, has to be reduced in height.

So last June, the top brass told the Taipei municipal government to think of a way to remove that security risk. City Hall came up with a great idea. It decided to expand the Poai special district to include President Ma's official residence, where any and all structures higher than 24 meters must have stories above that height torn down. All it took to do the job was to re-zone the area. The re-zoning was announced and a re-zoned map of the special district was published at the end of last month.

Developers are up in arms against the expansion of the special district. It covered a mere 45.45 hectares or 112 acres. The total area of the expanded district now is 234 hectares or 562 hectares, five times as large as it was. There are many other buildings exceeding the height limit. A few more are under construction. Builders, as well as owners, want compensation.

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