Yu may try to help Cabinet members find love

"I feel somewhat obligated to help top officials who are single find a mate because I've kept them way too busy at work. I'm thinking of organizing some activities so they'll have the opportunity to meet prospective significant others."

Yu Shyi-kun, premier

Premier Yu Shyi-kun has added a new item to his agenda: finding romantic partners for top Cabinet officials who are single.

"I feel somewhat obligated to help top officials who are single find a mate because I've kept them way too busy at work," Yu said. "I'm thinking of organizing some activities so they'll have the opportunity to meet prospective significant others."

Yu made the remarks yesterday during a lunch party for the wives and husbands of 24 high-ranking Cabinet officials at his official residence. Yesterday marked the second anniversary of Yu's swearing-in as premier.

Yu expressed gratitude to the other halves of top Cabinet officials and asked Chen Lin-hua (陳琳華), wife of Lin Chia-cheng (林嘉誠), chairman of the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission, to tell her husband that he has to make sure that all married Cabinet officials spend Valentine's Day with their husbands or wives.

"I'm much indebted to you who bear with someone who's on call 24 hours a day like a 7-Eleven clerk," Yu said.

Among the high-ranking Cabinet officials who are single are Cabinet Secretary-General Liu Shi-fang (劉世芳), Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), Chairwoman of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission Chang Fu-mei (張富美), Council of Labor Affairs Chairwoman Chen Chu (陳菊) and Minister without Portfolio Lin Sheng-feng (林盛豐).

Lin, a 52-year-old divorcee, said that he appreciated the premier's offer to organize activities for single Cabinet members, but he had very little time for himself, let alone for a significant other.

According to Lin, he works 10 to 12 hours a day, six days a week. His friends occasionally set him up on blind dates but he has not yet met someone with whom, in his words, he could talk congenially.

Among the top Cabinet officials who are widowed are Council of Hakka Affairs Chairwoman Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭) and Council for Cultural Affairs Chairwoman Tchen Yu-chiou (陳郁秀).

Yeh's late husband, Deng Nan-jung (鄭南榕), committed suicide by setting himself on fire in April 1989 when he was surrounded by police who planned to arrest him on sedition charges following his 71 days of self-imposed isolation.

Chen's late husband, Lu Hsiu-yi (盧修一), was a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker from 1990 to August 1998, when he died of lung cancer.

After having been denied entry to several local universities because of his imprisonment from 1983 to 1986 for sedition, Lu went abroad to earn a doctoral degree in political science from the Sorbonne in Paris and became a member of the legislature after he returned.

During an era when the legislative chamber was still under the control of legislators who had not had to face the electorate for decades, Lu resorted to extreme means -- frequently involving fistfights -- in an attempt to force every lawmaker to face voters.

One of the moments for which he was best known took place in 1997 on the eve of an election for Taipei County commissioner. Lu kneeled on a stage, despite being ill, to solicit votes for Su Chen-chang (蘇貞昌), the DPP candidate for the slot.