The premier who gets things done

A Presidential Office source told the Taipei Times yesterday that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) tapped Yu Shyi-kun as premier because over the past 18 months, Yu has proved himself to the president as a man who gets things done.

The mission of the reshuffled Cabinet, said the source, will be to boost the economy, reduce confrontation between the ruling and opposition parties and pave the way for the president's re-election in 2004.

"Yu carried through a series of vital political missions last year, including the holding of the Economic Development Advisory Conference and the government reform committee," the source said.

"He shuttled between the opposition parties and consulted with them patiently over the conference. He has been able to grasp the president's requirements and bottom-line with precision and thus became the president's most trusted top aide."

In fact, senior DPP legislator Hong Chi-chang (洪奇昌) has said that Yu has long been Chen's anointed favorite.

Back in 1997 when Yu relinquished the post of Ilan County commissioner after eight years on the job, Chen, then Taipei City mayor, appointed Yu to be the president of the Taipei MRT Company.

This was intended as an interim arrangement prior to Yu's intended appointment as deputy mayor in preparation for his own candidacy in the mayoral election once Chen's tenure expired in 1998.

But things did not work out as planned.

Chen was defeated in his mayoral re-election bid and decided to run for the presidential election in 2000. Yu took charge of Chen's campaign and was rewarded with the post of vice premier after Chen won the presidency.

But the Pachang Creek (八掌溪) incident of July 2000 -- which triggered the first political crisis of the newly inaugurated administration -- resulted in Yu's resignation to shoulder political responsibility for the then premier Tang Fei (唐飛). The incident involved the deaths of four workers in floodwaters in Chiayi County after rescue helicopters failed to materialize.

Yu had decided to travel abroad, but the president persuaded him to stay in the country, planning to entrust him with major political undertakings at the earliest opportunity, said an official from Yu's office.

After Tang resigned in October 2000, then secretary-general to the president Chang Chun-hsiung was chosen for the premiership, paving the way for Yu to re-emerge in Chen's administration.

Meanwhile, on the general issue of the Cabinet reshuffle, a close aide to the president said that Chen had been deliberately low key about it since the DPP's success in the legislative elections. The aide said the low-key approach was an attempt to refrain from ruffling the opposition.

Chen reportedly had a few names on his list for the premiership, including the incumbent Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄), but after considering public opinion, political stability and economic development, the president on Jan. 15 told Yu to head the new Cabinet.

"Apart from the posts of chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council and the ministers of defense and foreign affairs, on which the president had made his decisions, the appointments of all the other Cabinet members were left to Yu," the aide said. "This demonstrates the president's trust in him."

"As for the new vice premier, Yu had preferred Chiang Ping-kun (江丙坤), a former KMT chairman of the Council for Economic Planning and Development to take the job, but the KMT Central Standing Committee's resolution that no party member may join the new Cabinet precludes him. So the job went to Lin Hsin-yi (林信義)," the aide said.