Premier to push China Airlines privatization

Premier Yu Shyi-kun vowed to introduce a reform plan within two weeks to privatize China Airlines yesterday as Saturday's fatal plane crash continued to grip the political scene.

Meanwhile, the legislature, slated to question the premier over his six-year economic plan, bickered over who should take the political blame for the disaster.

"The ultimate remedy lies in privatization," Yu said when asked to comment on China Airlines in the light of the crash. "I believe that the company will improve its management and operations after being privatized."

To speed up the effort, Yu promised to come up with a reform plan in two weeks.

A quasi-governmental organization, the China Aviation Development Foundation has a 71 percent stake in the former state-run carrier. Many of the foundation's board members are retired government or military officials. They manage about NT$50 billion (US$1.45 billion) in assets.

The premier admitted that previous efforts to privatize the carrier had not gone smoothly, but said he is optimistic now that the economy has shown signs of recovery.

He also pledged to take disciplinary measures against any officials found to be negligent once the crash probe arrives at a conclusion.

Yu's remarks failed to satisfy lawmakers, however.

KMT legislator Wu Den-yi (吳敦義) said he was skeptical of the Cabinet's determination to enhance flight safety, noting that not a single dollar in the six-year plan is intended to address the issue.

Dubbed "Challenging 2008," the program is expected to cost NT$2.6 trillion and help the nation achieve an economic growth of 5 percent and create 700,000 job opportunities, among other initiatives, over the next six years.

Wu further pointed out that Tsay Jaw-yang (蔡兆陽), former transportation minister, and Tsai Duei (蔡堆), former chief of Civil Aeronautics Administration, resigned from their posts following the airlines' 1994 crash, which killed 264 people.

"But today Tsay is chairman of the China Aviation Development Foundation while Tsai is vice transportation minister. Are these arrangements compliant with the principle of political accountability?" Wu asked.

Meanwhile, DPP lawmaker Charles Chiang (江昭儀) demanded the resignation of Yung Kai (戎凱), managing director of the Aviation Safety Council, which investigates the country's air accidents.

"There have been so many domestic air accidents and the council has failed to find out what caused them," Chiang said. "All he does is travel to other countries to put on public relations shows."

Chen Chong-yi (陳宗義), another DPP legislator, pinned the blame on officials left over from the KMT government, saying they have been hindering reforms.

He urged consumers to boycott China Airlines to force the company to engage in some soul-searching.

Some TSU lawmakers attributed the tragedy to the carrier's use of the word "China" in its title.

To avoid recurrence of bad luck, TSU legislators Lo Chih-ming (羅志明), Huang Cheng-che (黃政哲) and Lin Chih-lung (林志隆) suggested that the company replace it with the word "Taiwan."