Print

Mail

wiki links

Yu still wants to go, despite Chen

Premier Yu Shyi-kun remained determined to resign yesterday while the president remained just as determined to prevent him from doing so, reports said.

Nevertheless a small-scale Cabinet reshuffle is likely, a source from the Presidential Office said yesterday.

Yu submitted his resignation to President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) three times on Friday to take responsibility for the mess surrounding financial reform of farmers' and fishermen's credit associations and the subsequent humiliating government about-face.

"We should put priority on our country's political stability. The president is inclined not to change the premier, but a small-scale reshuffle of the Cabinet would not influence such stability," the source said on condition of anonymity.

Though declining to comment directly on the premier's resignation, Presidential Office spokesman James Huang (黃志芳) told the Taipei Times yesterday that President Chen's unchanged stance was to blame himself rather than the premier over the issue and wanted him to stay on to continue with the reform efforts.

Yesterday up to 120,000 farmers and fishermen demonstrated in Taipei over the reforms, despite the government's abandonment of the reforms earlier this week.

The Cabinet praised the demonstrators for their orderly behavior but declined to talk about the reshuffle issue.

"The premier feels ... that farmers and fishermen demonstrated a full democratic spirit in a peaceful manner during the protest? But I have no further information about personnel transfer to report," Cabinet spokesman Chuang Shuo-han (莊碩漢) said at a news conference yesterday evening.

Chuang added that the premier had been in close touch with the Presidential Office yesterday through the duration of the demonstration.

Farmers and fishermen who attended the march yesterday said nevertheless that they didn't want anybody to step down because of their protest.

Nevertheless the futures of three other Cabinet members are in doubt.

Vice Premier Lin Hsin-yi (林信義) was reported to have turned in his resignation last Monday. Minister of Finance Lee Yung-san (李庸三) resigned Friday, and Council of Agriculture Chairman Fan Chen-tsung (范振宗) yesterday also formally filed his resignation with the Cabinet, saying that he had wanted to do so for a long time.

An official close to Lin said that the vice premier did not want his resignation to cause problems for the Cabinet. It is widely believed that Lin will stay if Yu does.

Meanwhile, during the march yesterday, Fan apologized to the farmers and fishermen saying: "It's all my fault."

After turning in his resignation to the premier yesterday, Fan said he had already asked for a week-long leave starting tomorrow.

Several DPP legislators yesterday called for Premier Yu not to resign for the sake of political stability.

DPP Legislators Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) and Kao Chi-peng (高植澎) from the Justice Alliance, a sub-group in the legislature, said that the premier should not quit now or financial reforms will be even more difficult to implement.

The legislators said they felt that Yu's Cabinet has been doing a fine job since its inauguration in February. They also said political factors were involved in yesterday's demonstration.

Meanwhile, former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), who has been opposed to the credit association reform package, also expressed hope that Premier Yu would stay on as did Lee Ying-yuan (李應元), the DPP's candidate for Taipei mayor. Lee also urged the public to write letters to Yu to show their support.
This story has been viewed 2183 times.