Wu Meng-te (吳孟德) said yesterday that he made his decision to resign from his post as director of the Kaohsiung City Government's Bureau of Public Works for the sake of ethnic integration.
"I insist on resigning despite [Kaohsiung City Mayor Frank Hsieh's (謝長廷)] dissuasion because I do not want to let some special interest groups exaggerate and manipulate a misunderstanding into an issue of ethnic confrontation," said Wu.
Wu made the remarks at a press conference yesterday afternoon.
Wu was referring to an incident last Thursday, when he said that massive flooding in the city last July was brought about due to the massive influx of mainlanders into the city, causing overdevelopment, excessive pumping of groundwater and pressure on water tables.
Wu made the remark when responding to a question by PFP City Councilor Yang Se-yu (楊色玉) as to whether human error had caused the floods in the city on July 11 last year.
Though Wu later apologized, insisting that his use of the term "mainlanders" had been a "slip of the tongue," he was unable to quiet a public uproar over the matter.
"The whole matter has quickly lost its focus and instead was magnified into an issue of ethnic confrontation," Wu said.
Hsieh accepted Wu's resignation on Sunday and asked Wu to stay on as an adviser to the Kaohsiung City Government.
"I hope that I will be the last city official to have to resign over a `slip of tongue,'" Wu said.
Wu also said he felt it was unjust to question the performance of his colleagues during last year's floods.
"The Taipei City Government took seven days to dredge one underground passage when Typhoon Nari hit last year, but during the [July floods in Kaohsiung] my colleagues were being questioned when they dredged seven underground passages a day."
A crowd of more than 300 people expressed their support for Wu yesterday morning in front of the Kaohsiung City Hall, asking Wu not to resign.
The agitated crowd scuffled with Kaohsiung City Council security guards several times as they attempted to push their way to the front entry of the city council.
During yesterday's press conference, Wu called on his supporters to stop protesting.
"Doing so will only create more excuses and give more room to those groups trying to stir up ethnic tension," he said.
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