KMT lawmaker Shyh Jong-shyong, during a press conference yesterday, makes public a videotape taken during an inspection of the Chungsheng Institute for the Mentally and Physically Handicapped, located in Hsinhua village, Tainan County. For the last 17 years, the Institute has failed to obtain a license to operate legally, and has been accused of abusing patients in its care. After revealing the inhumane conditions at a rural institution for the mentally and physically disabled in Tainan County, a KMT lawmaker has demanded its proprietor be brought to justice and a thorough investigation be launched. I simply cannot believe what I saw there. While showing a videotape to the media, Shyh, who is himself physically disabled, said patients, often handcuffed or wearing leg irons, are driven out of their rooms in the morning to enable janitors to clean their rooms.
Janitors use water hoses to clean the urine and feces left on the metal-frame beds they sleep on.
Flies are everywhere, often perching on patients' eyes, ears, mouths and lips. Shyh said he would call an emergency meeting this morning to urge related authorities from the central government, to tackle the case within two weeks. Also on the agenda, Shyh said, were plans to request the Control Yuan to impeach related authorities for negligence over the years since the institution's establishment in 1983. The institute's inmates vary in age from 10 to 80 years old. The Chungsheng Institute does not have a license to operate, as required by law.