Premier William Lai (賴清德) yesterday said that he would step down “when the time is right” to take political responsibility for the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) heavy losses in the Nov. 24 nine-in-one elections.
“Taking political responsibility is the supreme value of democracy that no one should ever go against. I am a person who preaches ‘long live democracy,’” Lai told a news conference at the Executive Yuan.
Asked whether the right time would be when the Legislative Yuan breaks for a recess next month or in 2020 for the presidential election, Lai did not elaborate.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The legislative session is scheduled to end on Dec. 31, but an extra session is likely to be held next month if next year’s budget is not passed by the end of the year.
Lai on election night offered his verbal resignation to President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), saying that the results reflected public dissatisfaction with the government for which he has to shoulder responsibility.
Tsai, who resigned as DPP chairperson that night, did not accept his resignation and told Lai to stay “in the interest of political stability and continuity.”
On Nov. 26, Lai said he would remain in his post, because he was scheduled to deliver a report on the Oct. 21 Puyuma Express train derailment to the legislature the next day and must continue the Executive Yuan’s efforts to pass next year’s budget and other bills.
Lai yesterday said that he had accepted Tsai’s offer to serve as premier in September last year against the advice of many of his friends, because the government was already in a bit of a predicament at the time.
“I wanted to help, but it turned out a year later that it did not work out well,” he said.
Lai said he decided to stay on as premier regardless of the criticism heaped on him, which was “not for my own good, but rather for the interest of the whole nation.”
“I am utterly resolute in stepping down when the time is right to shoulder political responsibility. What we have learned from the elections about our mistakes will surely be addressed and will not just be empty words,” he said.
Only when he resigns as premier would Tsai have room to embark upon her agenda in a more vigorous way, he said.
Lai also presented a report detailing what the Cabinet saw as causes of public dissatisfaction with its policy planning and implementation.
He cited the government’s failure to ensure that the effects of the nation’s economic growth would trickle down to ordinary people, to protect the rights and welfare of farmers and fishers, and to spread the tourism benefits created by the increasing numbers of visitors from countries targeted by Tsai’s New Southbound Policy to the eastern and southern parts of the nation.
Hasty amendments to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), failure to curb air pollution and the chaos during election day were also possible causes, he added.
The Presidential Office later released a statement saying that Tsai and Lai have achieved a high degree of consensus on a government reshuffle, policy adjustments and implementation.
Since the elections, Tsai and Lai have had intense exchanges of ideas and they both understand each other’s thoughts, the statement read.
“The president commends Lai for being a premier with a strong sense of responsibility. Lai’s decision to take the post and continue to perform diligently after the elections has been made in the interests of Taiwan,” it said.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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