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Lu criticizes Presidential Office secretary-general

Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday gave Presidential Office Secretary-General Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) a dressing-down for his overall performance, saying she had put up with him for long enough.

Lu's displeasure came after Chiou was revealed as the source of a proposal for the design of public polls for the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) presidential primary.

Chiou's proposal was endorsed by Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), while Lu and DPP Chairman Yu Shyi-kun were kept in the dark.

The DPP's Central Executive Committee (CEC) passed the proposal as the Presidential Office had planned yesterday. The design of the poll is believed to favor Su and Hsieh.

Lu said she believed President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) had laid down basic guidelines for the proposal and allowed Chiou to do the rest.

"[Chiou] is putting the president in a very bad position," she said. "He even manipulated the media to lead the public to think that it was the president's idea to force `two people' out of the race," she said.

As Chiou is currently abroad, Lu said Presidential Office Deputy Secretary-General Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) had telephoned her on Tuesday evening to explain the matter. Chen Chi-mai admitted that mistakes had been made with the handling of the proposal, including not consulting her, Lu said.

Chiou's office declined to comment yesterday.

Although Lu described the poll proposal as a "minor matter," she said Chiou could have done a better job and asked his two deputies to handle the matter in a more careful manner.

Lu also criticized Chiou's performance following assassination attempts on her and President Chen on the eve of the presidential election in 2004.

"It would not have been such a big deal if [Chiou] had told the public clearly what happened, but he handled the matter in such a secretive and confusing manner at the press conference that he caused more problems than he solved," she said. "I have put up with him for too long. He has never once said that he was sorry for causing political instability after the shooting incident and causing the president to be unjustly blamed."

Lu said she did not know whether there was a political agenda behind Chiou's behavior but that he should apologize to the DPP and the president.

Lu also criticized Su, insinuating that he was not loyal to President Chen at the height of last year's anti-Chen campaign.

Lu, who was the first to suggest that Su had tried to force President Chen to resign, yesterday said it was a serious matter that "somebody" had tried to blackmail the president into stepping down.

She said it was clear that "somebody" had wanted to distance himself from the president and threatened to resign to convince the public that he had nothing to do with the "corrupt" president.

Lu also singled out Hsieh, hinting that he was not loyal to Chen Shui-bian, particularly when he refused to attend the DPP's CEC meeting called on the night of first lady Wu Shu-jen's (吳淑珍) indictment.
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