The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday said that the latest Cabinet reshuffle was creating an “election Cabinet,” showing that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is more concerned with staying in power than protecting the public’s rights.
Appointing Executive Yuan spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) as Minister of the Interior shows that the DPP is solely concerned with candidates’ political correctness, rather than their capabilities, KMT Culture and Communications Committee deputy director-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said.
Reappointing Minister of the Interior Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮) as minister of education after a month-long vacancy shows that academics were reluctant to accept the position following the DPP government’s handling of the “Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔) incident,” Hung said.
Photo: Lin Liang-sheng, Taipei Times
The government has refused to confirm Kuan as National Taiwan University (NTU) president after his election by committee on Jan. 5 and in April said it would not appoint him, as he faced allegations that he failed to report a potential conflict of interest and of possible academic misconduct, including illegally teaching at Xiamen University in China.
Yeh is also accused of illegally having taught in China, so appointing him as education minister would only cause further controversy, Hung said.
Yeh was in April accused of having broken the law by teaching at Zhejiang University’s Guanhua Law School from Dec.19, 2011, to Jan. 15, 2012, while he was a professor at NTU.
He has denied the allegations, saying that he was not paid for the lectures in China.
While the unpopularity of Minister of Transportation and Communications Hochen Tan (賀陳旦) merited his dismissal, replacing him with Taiwan International Ports Corp chairman Wu Hong-mo (吳宏謀) — who is said to be part of Presidential Office Secretary-General Chen Chu’s (陳菊) clique — is an obvious political plum, Hung said.
The politically-inspired appointments on the heel of the Legislative Yuan’s extraordinary session were made with the year-end elections in mind, but such blatant “redirection” of resources is a double-edged sword that could turn the public against the DPP, Hung said.
A Cabinet reshuffle was to be expected, as there had not been a major one since Premier William Lai (賴清德) was appointed to the position in September last year, KMT legislative caucus secretary-general William Tseng (曾銘宗) said.
However, an election-oriented Cabinet is not in the nation’s long-term interest, as elections are held every four years, he said.
Yeh’s performance as interior minister was adequate, but he is not a suitable appointment as minister of education, Tseng added.
Hsu’s appointment as Minister of the Interior was politically motivated, Tseng said, adding that Hsu’s public image has been tarnished by his attempts to obfuscate information and tendency to argue, rather than communicate, during his tenure as Executive Yuan spokesman.
New Power Party (NPP) caucus convener Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said he hopes that the Cabinet reshuffle was not entirely politically motivated and was somehow meant to strengthen ongoing reforms.
“We hope the new ministers will address expectations on sports reform, protection of rights for police and firefighters, renewed efforts to introduce judicial reforms and financial reforms,” Hsu said.
People First Party caucus whip Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) said that the DPP should appoint individuals with the national interest in mind.
The national interest, not party interest, should be of primary concern when planning Cabinet reshuffles, Lee said.
Additional reporting by CNA
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater