Resigning from her post as deputy secretary-general of the Executive Yuan, Chen Mei-ling (陳美伶) yesterday urged Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers to stop painting civil servants with pan-blue or pan-green brushes.
Chen, 50, applied for retirement from the government on Wednesday after Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) told her a day earlier that she would be transferred to the post of secretary-general of the Executive Yuan’s Consumer Protection Commission.
Liu approved her retirement yesterday.
Chen said Liu had told her that the transfer was simply an ordinary redeployment but she had heard different from elsewhere.
She said that some KMT lawmakers wanted to see her leave because they thought she favored the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) over the KMT.
“The lawmakers had accused me of siding with the DPP on such issues as holding referendums together with elections, the name-change for the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, and the referendum on joining the UN using the name Taiwan,” Chen said, referring to several contentious issues that had triggered heated confrontation between the DPP and the KMT.
Chen said she felt angry about the accusations because she only took orders from her superiors and had no authority to make decisions.
She said she was unable to change the position of the DPP administration on the issues even though she had expressed dissenting opinions.
“Superiors are the brains, and civil servants are their hands and feet,” she said. “My superior has the right to transfer me, and I totally respect that. But for the past 28 years, I had worked for the country, for the government, and not for any party.”
Chen was appointed chairwoman of the Executive Yuan’s Legal Affairs Committee by former premier Yu Shyi-kun in 2002. She was promoted to deputy secretary-general of the Executive Yuan in 2006 by then-premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌).
When approached by the press for a comment on the matter yesterday, Liu said he would have liked to rely on Chen’s strength in legal matters but he had to respect her personal career plans.
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