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:
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS