Miaoli wants the casino vetoed in Penghu vote

Liu Cheng-hung, magistrate of Miaoli, said on kicking off an unofficial campaign for re-election yesterday he would attract investment to his county by opening a casino to promote tourism.

The official campaign has to start two weeks before voters go to the polls on December 5.

Opening a campaign office in Miaoli, Liu said he would turn 800 hectares of land in Tunghsiao and Hsinpu in his county into a casino zone.

Tunghsiao will be made a port of entry, Liu said. Hotels, restaurants and leisure facilities will be built to make the casino compound his county's top tourist attraction, he added.

“We want the casino the people of Penghu have given up,” the magistrate told supporters at his campaign office.

Top Kuomintang officials extended their congratulations in person on the occasion of the opening of the campaign office. Among them were Wu Po-hsiung, Kuomintang chairman; Wang Jin-pyng, president of the Legislative Yuan; Chu Lih-lun, vice premier; and Liao Liao-yi, secretary-general to President Ma Ying-jeou.

Wang Chien-fah, magistrate of Penghu, refuted supporters of the casino in his offshore island county who are converging online to declare that the failed referendum has brought an “unprecedented crisis” to the Pescadores.

“How come it has created crisis?” Wang bristled. “We'll be able to develop tourism without a casino.”

Penghu has long mapped out a tourism development master plan, Wang said. “We'll carry it out according to schedule,” he added.

“Don't think we are at a loss over what to do now that the casino referendum was defeated,” said Wang, who is facing reelection, come December 5.

President Ma Ying-jeou made a campaign promise to legalize gambling last year. Gambling is now legalized, but offshore islands are given priority in opening casinos.

Green Island, an offshore island under the jurisdiction of Taitung County in eastern Taiwan, may try to set up a casino to stimulate the local economy.

“We don't rule out the possibility that a casino may be opened on Green Island,” a Taitung county government source said.

The small island, where a political prisoners' camp was once located, is losing tourists. A casino may give it a chance to attract more tourists.

Taitung's other offshore island, Orchid Island, is not interested in legalized gambling, however.

The indigenous Yami people on Orchid Island do not want legalized gambling to “contaminate” their culture. Two local referendums have been held on the offshore islands of Kinmen or Quemoy, a stone's throw away from Amoy or Xiamen on the mainland of China.

Little Kinmen, also known as Lieh-yu, called one in April. A 69 percent majority said yes to a casino. The other took place at the township of Kinsha on the main island of Kinmen in last July. The townspeople voted nay.

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