Premier Frank Hsieh (
"Somebody has to pay for it, but Su needs to stay for more important jobs and assignments," Hsieh said.
He made his remarks in response to reporters' questions during a trip to Miaoli yesterday.
RETURN HOME MARRED
Su told People First Party (PFP) Legislator Lee Ching-hua (
Su had led the government's delegation to the installation of Pope Benedict XVI.
Lee had asked the minister what he thought of the request by some fellow lawmakers that the premier relieve him of his job.
Su immediately said he would take responsibility for what happened at the airport on Tuesday morning.
ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY
As the interior minister, Su oversees the police.
"As a superior official for my fellow police officers, I would apologize to the public on behalf of them and take responsibility," Su said.
"It is also the job of the police to track down those who violate the law no matter who they are," he said.
"My leaving the post would not be important, but maintaining public order cannot be interrupted," Su said.
"It is not his [Su's] fault and I will not blame him at all since he was representing the president at the pope's installation when the incident took place," the premier said. "He is not the person to be blamed."
"We cannot ask Su to take responsibility for everything," Hsieh stressed.
Hsieh said that the Aviation Police Bureau commissioner was the commander at the scene and therefore was the person who should take responsibility.
"We have to punish the right person," Hsieh said.
HSIEH'S WARNING
"Although the commissioner has been relieved, it is possible to relieve another commissioner if history repeats itself," he said.
Hsieh, however, refused to respond to reporters questions about Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Shih-chien's (王世堅) plans to protest at CKS International Airport when Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) returns on May 3.
Wang has been seen as Hsieh's protegee in the DPP.
Along with other DPP members, Wang led a crowd to the airport on Tuesday to protest Lien's trip to China.
Although Wang insists that members of his group were not carrying any dangerous items that could have been used to attack people, he is under investigation for violating the Assembly and Parade Law (
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
RSS