Former minister of labor Pan Shih-wei (潘世偉) yesterday insinuated that he was ousted because he had got in somebody else’s way of raking in money.
Pan tendered his resignation during a telephone call to Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) on Thursday morning after a magazine reported about his alleged extramarital affair. Jiang approved his resignation later that day.
However, one day after leaving his post, Pan lashed out at the government’s “administrative system” on Facebook, saying that the “ganging up for self-interests” inside the system is “truly horrible.”
“Those [who ganged up] are high-ranking civil servants. They know how to plan and use the budget, and how to enrich their own coffers and use their own people to justify the process,” Pan said. “It is all in the name of the public, but in fact it is to line their own pockets.”
“It was simply because I was in the way of their plan to amass fortune,” he said.
Pan also rebutted media reports saying he failed to attend a meeting with the premier on the day that he tendered his resignation, calling the report “a machination.”
“After I called the premier in the morning, I received a call from the Executive Yuan for a meeting at 11:15am. I bumped into New Taipei City Deputy Mayor [Chen Shen-hsien (陳伸賢)] and Minister of Health and Welfare Chiu Wen-ta (邱文達) in the Executive Yuan,” he said.
“Before entering the premier’s office, I also happened to meet central bank Governor [Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南)], who told me that it must have been someone from your [agency who had schemed against you]. I seconded his comment,” the former minister said.
“So it was absolutely nonsense to claim that I did not meet with the premier,” he said.
“Does the media machination have to be like this?” he asked.
Media reports quoted Executive Yuan spokesman Sun Lih-Chyun (孫立群) as saying that Pan tendered his resignation verbally to Jiang and failed to meet with the premier.
Pan said that when he met with the premier, before the spokesperson made the statement, Jiang had agreed not to make public his resignation for the time being.
“We needed to make our comments in line with each other [following the spokesperson’s remarks], so we had to say that I would meet the premier in the afternoon,” Pan said, adding that Jiang had made the decision “only under group pressure.”
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has fined Taobao NT$1.2 million (US$36,912) for advertisements that exceed its approved business scope, requiring the Chinese e-commerce platform to make corrections in the first half of this year or its license may be revoked. Lawmakers have called for stricter enforcement of Chinese e-commerce platforms and measures to prevent China from laundering its goods through Taiwan in response to US President Donald Trump’s heavy tariffs on China. The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee met today to discuss policies to prevent China from dumping goods in Taiwan, inviting government agencies to report. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kuo Kuo-wen (郭國文) said
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has fined Taobao NT$1.2 million (US$36,900) for advertisements that exceeded its approved business scope and ordered the Chinese e-commerce platform to make corrections in the first half of this year or its license would be revoked. Lawmakers have called for stricter supervision of Chinese e-commerce platforms and more stringent measures to prevent China from laundering its goods through Taiwan as US President Donald Trump’s administration cracks down on origin laundering. The legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday met to discuss policies to prevent China from dumping goods in Taiwan, inviting government agencies to report on the matter. Democratic Progressive Party