Premier-designate Tang-Fei (唐飛) confirmed more Cabinet appointments before checking himself in yesterday at Taipei's Veterans General Hospital (榮民總醫院) in preparation for an operation to remove a benign tumor from his chest. While several more appointments have been confirmed, others have expressed their unwillingness to accept their new postings.
Tang spoke to a slew of reporters in front of his residence yesterday morning before going to the hospital, saying that the job of filling the Cabinet could not completed before he undergoes his operation. However, during his hospitalization, the job will be taken over by Vice Premier-designate Yu Hsi-kun and appointed Secretary General to the Cabinet Wea Chi-lin (魏啟林).
"The work will not be delayed due to my illness," Tang said.
According to Tang, the latest confirmed list in the new DPP-led government include Wu Rong-ming (吳容明), former deputy governor of Taiwan province, to serve as minister of personnel; DPP legislator Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭) is set to take over as minister of transportation and communications; Hsu Cheng-kuan (徐正光), director of ethnology studies at Academia Sinica, has been tapped to head the Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs Commission; Lin Neng-pai (林能白), dean of the management school at National Taiwan University, will be the next director of the Public Construction Commission (行政院公共工程委員會); Lin Chia-cheng (林嘉誠), former Taipei deputy mayor, has been appointed to head the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission (研考會); Lin Chuan (林全), former Taipei City finance director, will act as director general of Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (主計處); and former Ilan County Commissioner Chen Ting-nan (陳定南) has been tapped to be the new minister of justice.
However, the process has incurred unexpected problems as some appointees have rejected their assignments.
Kaohsiung County Commissioner Yu Cheng-hsien (余政憲) declined his appointment as interior minister. Yu said he was more than happy to stay where he was because many construction projects in Kaohsiung County have yet to be finished. In addition, New Party Lawmaker Hao Lung-ping (郝龍斌), who was tipped to be the new head of the Environmental Protection Administration (環保署) also declined the offer. He said he would like to put the interests of his party ahead of his own.
Though, according to reports, having received many phone calls to encourage her to accept her appointment as interior minister, Chiayi Mayor Chang Po-ya (張博雅) yesterday indicated that her decision to stay in her current post remained unchanged. "There are many other DPP members who are more suitable for the position than myself," Chung said.
Due to his student's and faculty's insistence that he stay in his current position, Ovid Tzeng (曾志朗), president of National Yang Ming University (NYMU), also declined to take the helm at the Ministry of Education. However, Tang advised Tzeng to reconsider his decision, hoping he could "place the country's benefits before those of his school."
The date for Tang to undergo the operation has not been set, but he will require hospitalization for approximately 10 to 14 days, according to his doctor.
Employees of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday that they were pleased with Yeh's appointment as they thought the DPP legislator would be able to crackdown on what they called rampant cronyism in the ministry, the Central News Agency reported.
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