| Abstract: | 近年來農委會積極推動「小地主大佃農」政策，希望以租賃方式整合農地，擴大農場經營規模，以活化農村生產。但是多數農民儘管年事已高、耕作所得又低，卻大多不願將土地出租。根據研究者於2005 年於雲林縣斗南鎮所做的訪查，有高達79.1%的土地所有權人對出租其土地持反對意見。這些土地所有權人不願將土地出租的原因，主要是受到過去政府實施耕地三七五減租政策的影響，彼等擔心土地出租後將永遠收不回來。耕地三七五減租政策開始施行於1949 年，由當時台灣省省長陳誠所積極推動，「耕地三七五減租條例」則是於1951 年制定，至今施行以將近60 年的光陰。雖然農業發展條例於2000 年修正時，已排除了修正後之耕地租賃對「耕地三七五減租條例」之適用，但修法前之耕地三七五租約卻仍然繼續有效。依內政部地政司統計，截至2007 年底為止，台灣地區各鄉（鎭、市、區）公所登記有案之三七五耕地租約，仍有39,799 件，這使得土地所有權人心中的疑慮始終無法解開，不願意將土地出租。本研究計畫之問題意識乃是由上述土地所有權人不願將土地出租之問題引發，並進一步的思索許多重要的課題。研究者欲經由歷史性的研究，來探索當時所謂「地主」的實際內涵，例如，他們所擁有的土地面積大抵為多少？他們是否確為社會的剝削階級？我們長期以來是否皆誤把「業主」當成為「地主」，讓這些業主（或是土地所有權人）承載了太多意識型態的負擔？而且，時至今日，終不得解脫？由於「地主」在當時等於是一個剝削階級的代名詞，是必須予以制裁及消滅的。但是，據研究者對於耕者有其田政策的研究發現，大多數的台灣耕地所有權人僅擁有小面積的耕地，其實是不夠資格被稱之為地主。然而，國民政府來台之後，為了要實施土地改革政策，竟然將地主的定義做了毫無限制的擴張，凡是擁有耕地，並且將其出租者，即被冠之以地主的稱謂，而其命運也因此陷入慘境。這些土地所有權人因國民政府不適當的定義及分類而被誤認為「地主」，承受社會的負面觀感，於是種種為消滅地主階級的政策，便一一加諸於這些土地所有權人身上，三七五減租政策之實施即是其中之一，該政策在保護佃農的同時，亦對土地所有權人之財產造成了侵奪。而在1953 年耕者有其田政策完成之後，當時的業主既已被徵收了超過規定面積的土地，其被冠上的「地主」稱謂，也亦應隨之消失。但是，這些土地所有權人卻至今仍背負著地主的原罪，即使當時的威權體制如今已不再見，即使業佃間的社經關係已有重大改變，但當時種種不適當的政策，卻仍如影隨形地跟隨著他們。本研究計畫之提出，其主要的目的乃是欲經由三七五租約的審視及口述歷史的研究方法，來進一步了解這一段重要的歷史。由於距離三七五減租政策的施行已經有了六十年的光陰，切身經歷這一段歷史的地方耆老目前所存可能無多，因此，亟待儘速進行口述歷史的採集，以補足歷史的缺憾。此外，也將藉由研究者所蒐集的嘉義縣新港鄉「私有耕地租約期滿收回出租耕地申請書」大量資料的研析與整理，來還原歷史的原貌，並由公平正義之視野來重新檢視三七五減租政策之過去與未來，並為受此項政策束縛六十年之業佃雙方尋求一解套辦法
The Council of Agriculture (COA) has been advancing the policy of "small landowners and big tenants" beginning from this year. The COA expects to expand the scale of farmland and to improve land use efficiency by rent farmland from those landowners who have no willingness to farm. However, the result is that most of the landowners are not willing to leasing their farmland out. According to the researcher’s study in 2005, a survey of the landowners in the Dou-Nan Township of Yun-Lin County, 79.1% of landowners are unwilling to leasing their land out. This is mainly because “the Farmland 37.5% Rent Reduction Policy” which has been implementing since 1949 restraints landowners to have their land back to their hands. Learning from this experience, Taiwanese landowners are worry that they cannot have their land back in the future if they lease them out to tenants. According to statistics supplied by the Department of Land Administration, Ministry of Interior (MOI), up to the end of 2007, there are still 39,799 rent contracts, which were signed according to “the Farmland 37.5% Rent Reduction Act.” The Act was instituted at 1951, and it was strictly liable to the tenants’ benefits. It was a time to take care of tenants because of the war between the Nationals and the Communists in China. Therefore, rights of landowners are seriously deprived of and the Act sets many unequal regulations to restrain landowners’ property rights. Landowners were powerless, and their rights were totally neglected. They became the inferior class of citizen at the Taiwan society. The Farmland 37.5% Rent Reduction Act is based on the assumption that farmers who lease their land out must be defined as landlords, the dominant class. However, can those landowners be called “landlords”? This is the initially research question of this project. As a “landlord”, he should own a great amount of land, and he probably was a wealthy person living not in the rural areas. However, most of “landlords” defined by the government was only own a small piece of land, and they were definitely not qualified for “landlords.” However, in order to implement the land reform policy in Taiwan the Nationalist government made a great expansion of the definition of landlord. Landowners who owned farmland and rented out to tenants were recognized as landlords. This definition was totally different from those definitions used by the Nationalist government when it still governed at the mainland China. Many landowners in Taiwan then received a tragic destiny since their life was relying on those small pieces of land. The major goal of this project is to find out those landowners who are still survived now. The researcher plans to use oral history method to record their pity experiences which are severely shorted from Taiwan’s land reform story. In addition, officially documents from the Kuomingtang (KMT), the executive sectors and the courts will also be collected and reexamined. It has been almost 60 years since the government implemented “the Farmland 37.5% Rent Reduction Policy. The researcher believes that it is very important to consider the future of the Farmland 37.5% Rent Reduction Policy. Also, this unjustified story cannot be overlooked anymore, and the society should find a way to compensate those landowners who are still waiting for justice |
