What are the “Four Evils”? Confucius said: “To execute without prior instruction is cruelty; to issue urgent orders after lax enforcement is tyranny…” These are two of the four. The recent aggressive demolition of vendors along the Daking No. 9 Hiking Trail by the Taichung City Government is an act embodying these two evils.
The Daking Mountain area, though plagued by tiny black sandflies, has seen increased visitor numbers in recent years thanks to the municipal government’s efforts in infrastructure development and tourism promotion. What was once a bustling weekend hiking trail now attracts climbers even on weekday mornings and evenings. This influx of visitors has created business opportunities, with vendors gradually growing from just a few to over a hundred, essentially forming an alternative mobile market.
Turning a hiking trail into a marketplace is similar in nature to turning a city street into a night market—the only difference being one is in the mountains, the other in the urban core.
Night markets can be guided and managed into cultural landmarks of local identity—so why can’t disadvantaged farmers selling Daking’s agricultural specialties on mountain trails be given the same chance?
Farmers setting up permanent structures within the hiking trail park to conduct business is clearly illegal, yet regrettably, the city government turned a blind eye and allowed the situation to develop unchecked. Only when it had evolved into a full-blown market, drawing public criticism, did they take drastic action, ordering vendors to dismantle within a deadline. This not only stoked public resentment but also exposed the government’s initial “cruelty” in enforcing penalties without guidance, as well as its “tyranny” in lax policy enforcement followed by abrupt demolition orders.
With such “cruel” and “tyrannical” governance, how can the farmers possibly feel convinced or satisfied? And how can anyone not see this as the city government “always picking the soft persimmon”?