Premier-designate Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) said on Sunday that he will evaluate the feasibility of raising the salaries of government employees, military personnel and public school teachers after he assumes office on May 20.
“However, no timetable is available at the moment for taking such an initiative,” Liu said in an interview with a cable television station that aired on Sunday night, adding that an overall review is needed before a decision can be reached on the much-anticipated raise.
On president-elect Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) recent remarks that he hopes the incoming Cabinet will conduct grassroots and community outreach programs to better understand popular views on matters of public concern, Liu said he would not force Cabinet members to engage in “long-stay” programs as a way to get close to the public.
In the run-up to the March 22 presidential election, Ma launched a “long-stay” program during which he stayed one or two nights at the homes of selected people in central and southern townships as part of his get-out-the-vote campaign, which allowed him to build a good rapport with many townsfolk in his rival’s traditional vote banks.
“I don’t think that Ma really wants his Cabinet ministers to emulate him and stay overnight at peoples’ homes. I think he just wants to encourage Cabinet members not to stay in air-conditioned rooms all the time and to try hard to tune in to popular demands and mainstream opinions,” Liu said.
Liu further said he expects incoming Cabinet members to not spend excessive amounts of time in social engagement and instead devote more energy to policy planning and administrative innovation.
“I believe that low levels of social engagement will limit unnecessary trouble, inspire the public to lead a simple, frugal lifestyle and contribute to the establishment of clean politics,” Liu said.
Reaffirming his respect for the country’s civil service system, Liu said Democratic Progressive Party members in the civil service need not worry about possible victimization by the incoming government.
“What concerns me most is the recruitment and promotion of outstanding civil servants to suitable posts to achieve our goal of good governance,” he said.
Asked about his views on the Papua New Guinea diplomatic scandal in which approximately US$30 million in diplomatic funds vanished into private hands, Liu said diplomatic work should be carried out with prudence and according to the law to avoid unnecessary financial losses and damage to the country’s international image.
Liu said the unfortunate event could have been avoided if the government had followed existing administrative regulations.
“Given Taiwan’s diplomatic plight, checkbook diplomacy cannot be totally abandoned. But the government should pay special heed to the legality of the methods adopted in relevant operations,” Lu said, adding that the country should also refrain from paying unreasonably high sums to forge formal ties with a single ally.
“We need to weigh all the pros and cons and all possible advantages and disadvantages before paying any bills in order to avoid wasting national resources and to avoid a recurrence of similar scandals in the future,” Liu said.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
RSS