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Resignation unrelated to name change: Lai

Former Taiwan Post Co (臺灣郵政) chairman Lai Chin-chyi (賴清祺) said yesterday that his resignation from the postal company had nothing to do with the controversial name change that occurred last month.

"I just want to take a break, that's all," he said in a farewell party yesterday morning. "And if anyone of you [reporters] wants to say that my resignation was related to name change disputes, I can only say that I seek neither promotion nor fortune as a civil servant.

Asked if he had made this decision to avoid encountering difficulties at the Legislative Yuan, Lai said that he was not afraid to confront any difficulties.

The state-run postal company changed its name from Chunghwa Post (中華郵政) to Taiwan Post before the Lunar New Year.

A temporary board meeting convened yesterday to elect Ho Nuan-hsuen (何煖軒), vice minister of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC), as the company's chairman.

Ho, along with MOTC minister Tsai Duei (蔡堆), former chairman Hsu Ren-shou (許仁壽), Chunghwa Postal Workers' Union chairman Tsai Liang-chuan (蔡兩全) and other Taiwan Post employees were all invited to Lai's farewell party.

However, when Tsai Liang-chuan appeared on stage and presented a parting gift to Lai, representatives from the workers' union yelled "disgusting chairman!"

During protests last month, Tsai Liang-chuan said that both Lai and company president Wu Min-yu (吳民佑) should resign for having carried out the name change without consulting the employees and taxpayers.

"We are ambivalent about his [Lai's] resignation," Tsai Liang-chuan told the press. "It's a pity that a corporate leader has to step down because of the name change. It's a loss for the company."

But Wu Wen-feng (吳文豐), representative of workers' union at the company's headquarters, said that Tsai Liang-chuen's remarks did not represent the position of the union.

"Last month, he [Tsai Liang-chuen] was leading us to the street; now he is doing this [presenting gift to Lai]," Wu said. "We have been fooled by him all along!"

"What really concerns us, from the way they handled the name change, is that we will wake up one day to a privatized postal company," Wu added.

"It isn't the MOTC [owner of Taiwan Post] that will suffer the loss of an asset worth NT$400 billion [US$12.2 billion]. It's you, me and all the other taxpayers who have to deal with the consequences," he said.
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