The dispute over Vice President Annette Lu's (呂秀蓮) residence not only highlights the lack of communication between her and President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), but also shows the ongoing struggle between her office and that of the secretary-general to the president, Yu Shyi-kun.
From The Journalist's (新新聞) scandalous story that Lu was trying to overthrow the president by spreading rumors of infidelity, her recent hosting of the World Peace Assembly in August to the most recent dispute over housing, relations between Lu's office and other departments of the Presidential Office have long been strained.
Lu's spokeswoman, Tsai Ming-hwa (蔡明華) has said on several occasions that the president's young aides, the so-called "boy scouts," should take most of the responsibility for driving the president and his deputy apart.
"These people discredit Lu purposely and obstruct communication between the president and vice president," Tsai has said.
Yu Shyi-kun has become a major target of criticism, Presidential Office sources say. He, as the "grand chief for internal affairs of the Presidential Office," is stuck with being in between the Chen and Lu -- and maintaining a unified, coordinated operation of the Presidential Office.
He has to "avoid the release of conflicting orders and opinions from the Presidential Office," the source said.
"Faced with a willful and individualistic vice president, disagreements based on perceptual differences became a natural occurrence" between the vice president and the secretary-general.
"And disagreements over trivial matters at the administrative level have accumulated into vicious infighting within the Presidential Office," a close aide to the president pointed out.
The grudges between Yu and Lu are two-fold. One is the restriction over holding press conferences and the issuing of press releases. The other is a source from within the Presidential Office, who regularly leaks negative information about Lu to the press.
For example, the harsh media criticism Lu received when she insisted on dining with her lawyers at the Taipei Guest House last year occurred after just such a leak from inside the Presidential Office.
Lu was dining with her lawyers in preparation for a court hearing against The Journalist magazine.
But her use of the guest house for personal affairs forced a pre-arranged dinner party for foreign guests, hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to move from the Taipei Guest House to the Lai Lai Sheraton Hotel.
Lu later lashed out at poor communication within the Presidential Office for making her take the flak without informing her of the situation in advance.
Presidential aides were also disturbed after a press release issued by Lu's office raised her battle with The Journalist to one between the Presidential Office and the magazine at a time when the president was faced with opposition moves to impeach him.
Yu then came forward and declared during internal meetings that all statements from the Presidential Office should go through the Department of Public Affairs and that press releases should not be issued without Yu's review and approval.
To clarify The Journalist magazine's accusation, Lu expressed her wishes to the president, seeking his support. But Lu was rebuffed, as the president's aides wanted him to stay away from the lawsuit for his own protection. During this period, reports about poor communication between Chen and Lu abounded, and most of them portrayed Lu in a negative light.
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