Diplomatic flop vexes lawmakers

Legislators grilled Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Hung-mao (田弘茂) yesterday for moving his foreign guests to what they called a "shabby" hotel for an evening banquet on Wednesday.

The move was occcssioned by the use of the original official venue by the vice president and her lawyers who were discussing whether to file a lawsuit against a magazine.

As the ninth foreign ministerial meeting between Taiwan and its eight Central American allies ended late Wednesday afternoon, Tien admitted to lawmakers yesterday that he was "a bit shocked" upon learning that the Taipei Guest House was no longer available.

The Taipei Guest House, reserved for high-ranking officials to entertain foreign guests, was being used at the time by Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) and her team of lawyers for a final discussion on whether to file a civil lawsuit against The Journalist.

The magazine which recently reported that Lu spread rumors that the president was having an affair. The banquet was instead held in the Lai Lai Sheraton Hotel in downtown Taipei.

"It was a bit shabby there," Tien admitted to legislators at a meeting of the legislature's Foreign Relations Committee yesterday morning.

KMT Legislator Lee Shang-ren (李先仁), who was at the banquet, noted what he said was another gaffe at the banquet.

"Since the foreign ministry got certain titles wrong in the joint communique originally signed by the participants at the meeting that day, they had to sign another joint communique in a tiny room in the hotel after the banquet," Lee said.

Lee added that another embarrassment was the fact that five "noisy" wedding banquets were held on the same floor of the hotel where the official banquet took place.

When asked for explanations about the mismanagement of the event, foreign ministry officials offered contradictory statements.

The foreign ministry's department of protocol told Tien on Wednesday that it had already booked the Taipei Guest House before a subsequent phone call from Lu's office to the ministry to express Lu's wish to use the venue.

Foreign ministry officials "dared not" ask staff at Lu's office about Lu's purposes for booking the venue, Tien said.

But officials from the foreign ministry's department of general affairs told a different story, saying Lu's application came on the morning of Dec. 8, while the foreign ministry's application came later that same day.

Tien then apologized to lawmakers, and said poor internal coordination caused the mix-up.

The vice president's spokesperson Tsai Ming-hua (蔡明華) defended Lu, saying nobody had informed Lu's office of the foreign ministry's banquet prior to the vice president's application for using the guest house.

Regulations on the usage of the Taipei Guest House stipulate that the president, vice president, secretary-general of the Presidential Office, premier and minister of foreign affairs can use the venue to host foreign guests and hold major meetings and activities.