Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) yesterday vouched for his colleague after Shen Lyu-hsun (沈呂巡) had an outburst at the legislature on Thursday, saying the public should be more tolerant of Shen because the issues he was being grilled on were very personal and sensitive.
Shen, a career diplomat, returned from his stint as Taiwan's representative to the EU four weeks ago to fill the position of deputy foreign minister left vacant by Andrew Hsia (夏立言).
Last year, Shen received demerits for allegedly claiming extra money for office rent during his posting to Geneva as mission representative. Shen has vehemently denied the accusation, saying he had caught out his dishonest landlord and should be credited for getting the money back.
Thursday was Shen's first time to report to the legislature's Foreign and National Defense Committee, where lawmakers from both sides chided him for being “haughty” and “arrogant.”
Shen lost his cool several times when Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) asked him about the alleged embezzlement scandal.
Shen apologized intermittently, but said he was merely behaving like a trained diplomat — never being submissive in public — and said he was not used to the culture at the Legislative Yuan.
Shen's heated exchange with Tsai even spurred several Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers to ask him to “tone it down.”
KMT Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) advised Shen to keep his temper in check in future and try not to offend people because the foreign ministry still needed the support of the legislature.
Speaking to reporters yesterday, Yang praised Shen's professionalism and talent and asked the public to be more tolerant, saying the news that Shen had been accused of embezzling public funds had caused his aging father to suffer a major stroke that has left him a vegetative state.
RSS