President Chen Shui-bian (
Presidential Office spokesperson Chen Wen-tsung (陳文宗) said Chen and Lu expected that the probe into the matter would be comprehensive. He said that the incident had had a negative impact on public safety and the nation's image.
Lu said some Taiwanese love to "do it easy" and "hate working hard," and that this was why Taiwan needed to look overseas for labor.
PHOTO: CHU PEI-HSIUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
But she also paid tribute to the small army of foreign laborers that man the nation's construction sites and other workplaces.
"We have to appreciate people who contribute to Taiwan no matter what their nationality. We have to see workers from other countries as our brothers and sisters rather than just as foreigners," she said.
Lu said some Taiwanese discriminated against foreign workers and that these wrong ideas had to be adjusted.
Presidential Office officials said the office would not interfere with the investigation into the riot.
Meanwhile, a delegation from Thailand's legislature arrived in Taipei yesterday to gather information on the riot as well as to offer moral support to Thai workers.
During their four-day visit, the delegation will meet officials from the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) to discuss labor issues.
In Hsinchu County, Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) yesterday said that former Presidential Office deputy secretary-general Chen Che-nan (陳哲男), the father of acting Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁), was not involved in possibly corrupt conduct in relation to the hiring of the workers.
"It is not difficult to find out whether or not I am telling the truth," Hsieh said during a press conference in Sanwan Township (
Hsieh's remarks were referring to an allegation that Chen Che-nan took advantage of his position as a senior Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) figure to meddle in the hiring of Thai workers for Kaohsiung City's MRT project.
"China Steel Corp (CSC) is the firm that won the bid for the construction of the whole Kaohsiung MRT. But this company has nothing to do with Chen Che-nan," Hsieh said. "If he was really meddling in the matter, the company wouldn't have won the bid, would it?"
"Also, don't forget that then-CSC president Wang Chung-yu (王鍾渝) is now a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmaker. If there was any reason for a scandal, how is it that the KMT was so quiet?" he asked.
"Officials from Kaohsiung City's Labor Bureau and the MRT Bureau visited them [the Thai workers] to learn if they needed anything. Things were in good shape then," Hsieh said. "However, it is my understanding that the employer did not expand the facilities that were needed, despite hiring another 900 Thai workers in May."
DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday gave his support for the Cabinet and the Presidential Office's position, saying that political and electoral considerations should be put aside and that prosecutions should quickly follow if an investigation found collusion between the Kaohsiung City Government and the labor broker for the Thai workers.
Su also rebutted speculation that the scandal was being fueled by DPP factionalism ahead of the Kaohsiung mayoral election.
"The DPP's tradition is that we always thoroughly and courageously scrutinize the mistakes we make and find out why they happened," Su said. "We know that people look to the DPP to remain a reformer [party] and we will correct all the mistakes in response to public expectations."
Both Council of Labor Affairs Chairwoman Chen Chu (陳菊) and Chen Chi-mai have expressed interest in running for Kaohsiung mayor next year.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
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