Embattled Premier Frank Hsieh (
He will lead the Cabinet in a mass resignation on Monday.
Hsieh cited the failure of the legislature to approve the 2006 budget as the reason for his departure, but also made pointed remarks about his relationship with the president.
PHOTO: LUO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES
"I firmly believe the foundation for reconciliation is to obtain power first and I am willing to bear the responsibility for the outcome of the [budget] request," Hsieh said. "However, it has failed to win the support [of the Presidential Office], which strengthens my determination to leave."
"While I don't have any advice for my successor, I have asked the president to let the new premier have more time to orient himself with the new position and stay on the job longer," he said.
Hsieh's tenure as premier was marked by a series of corruption scandals in the government, followed by an electoral defeat for his party.
The president accepted Hsieh's decision without protest.
"I have accepted his resignation. He has stepped down after accomplishing his mission," President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said during a visit to Kinmen yesterday.
Chen said he would appoint a replacement before Lunar New Year's Day.
"I would like to appoint a new premier as soon as possible to not only stabilize the political situation but also to ensure smooth government administration," he added.
Accompanied by Vice Premier Wu Rong-i (吳榮義), Cabinet Spokesman Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) and other Cabinet officials, Hsieh made public his resignation during a press conference yesterday morning.
Hsieh said that he had told the president not to arrange any new position for him, because he would like to take a break from politics. He said he would like to take up writing to try to explain his policies to the public.
Hsieh added that he would like to see his Cabinet members retain their jobs, because his departure had a lot to do with personality conflicts. However, he admitted that what happened to the Cabinet after his departure was not up to him.
Hsieh said he had offered to leave twice after last month's local government elections, but that his resignation was rejected by the president because former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Su Tseng-chang (
Hsieh said he had proposed to the president that he should sit down and talk with the party's "four superstars" -- Su, Hsieh, Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) and DPP chairman-elect Yu Shyi-kun -- in a bid to coordinate their efforts.
"To be honest with you, the relationship between me and the others [Su, Lu and Yu] is more tense than [the relationship] between the president and I," Hsieh said.
The negotiation process, however, did not go well, Hsieh said. The party was busy with the DPP chairmanship election, while the government and legislature were tied up with the budget review.
With Yu elected as the new chairman and the budget review over, Hsieh said he broached the issue again and finally obtained the president's agreement.
After the president agreed to let him go on Monday night, Hsieh said he felt greatly relieved and that he had had a good night's sleep.
"I feel my burden has been lifted," Hsieh said.
Later, however, Hsieh sounded wistful when he said he would soon be jobless and that "being jobless is sometimes very undignified."
He was speaking during an inspection of a Council of Labor Affairs job training office in Taipei County, hours after he announced he would step down.
"It's indeed very coincidental," he said, that he should be visiting a place whose purpose is to find jobs for the unemployed.
"I will always remember this day," he said.
Additional reporting by Chiu Yu-tzu
Also see stories:
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS