Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) is expected to reshuffle the Cabinet on Monday, with Liu staying as premier, an official with the Executive Yuan disclosed yesterday.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Liu — who has been working with several senior Cabinet members at the Eighth Field Army’s military office in Cishan Township (旗山), Kaohsiung, since last Wednesday to handle resettlement and reconstruction following Typhoon Morakot — met with the press yesterday.
Despite remaining tight-lipped on the scale of the reshuffle, Liu said he had exchanged ideas with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on the subject and “already had some ideas.”
Amid rising public discontent over the government’s slow response to disaster relief after the typhoon struck Taiwan on Aug. 8 causing severe damage, Ma said on Aug. 18 that decisions on a Cabinet reshuffle would be made by early this month.
Liu declined to provide any information about the reshuffle, but appeared confident in his job as he was not hesitant to answer questions on his future plans to form a new Cabinet.
He said two elements would be factored in when considering replacements for Cabinet members.
“Aside from an overall picture, [the Cabinet members’] capacity to deal with the financial tsunami, which remains a great challenge to the country, and typhoon reconstruction are two factors I will certainly take into consideration,” Liu said.
It was widely speculated that the highest level Cabinet official to be held responsible for the much-criticized disaster relief performance would be Vice Premier Paul Chiu (邱正雄) as he was in charge of the response center for the relief work.
Liu said that his decision on the Cabinet reshuffle would not be affected by speculation.
Asked whether he offered a verbal resignation to Ma, as the Chinese-language China Times reported on Aug. 19, to take responsibility, Liu said: “It is not my style to clarify everything reported by the media, even though some of it is not true.”
Liu said the Cabinet would produce an overall review of the government’s performance during the typhoon relief at the end of this month.
He said it was necessary to conduct a review because by then the government would know how to make improvements and prevent similar mistakes in the future.
A review report can also “reveal the truth” about allegations that the government acted slowly during the first few days of the disaster in mobilizing the armed forces to rescue people, Liu said.
Liu said that the government did not come out to defend itself in the first place as it would rather spend time doing relief and reconstruction well, adding that some people “jumped to conclusions” to level sharp criticism at the government’s performance.
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