As his Cabinet yesterday resigned en masse, outgoing Premier William Lai (賴清德) said that he had no regrets about his time in office and hoped he would meet all his team members again “on the road to making Taiwan great.”
Lai called an extraordinary Cabinet meeting, during which he and Cabinet members affixed their official seals to a joint resignation addressed to President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
After shaking hands with each Cabinet member at a ceremony, Lai gave a farewell speech.
Photo: CNA, provided by the Executive Yuan
After he took office, Lai encouraged his Cabinet to be pragmatic, he said, citing countless policy meetings and a tour of the nation’s 22 cities and counties to take stock of their progress on the Long-term Care Services Program 2.0 and the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program, and assess their development needs.
It was a period of joyous moments and tragedies — such as a Puyuma Express train derailment in October last year and flooding in central and southern Taiwan in August last year — but Lai said that had no regrets or complaints about the time he spent “developing the nation, boosting the economy, serving the people and nourishing Taiwan.”
After the Democratic Progressive Party suffered crushing defeats in the Nov. 24 local elections, public frustration with the government could not be assuaged by Tsai’s resignation as party chairperson, so as the premier, he had to take responsibility, Lai said.
He told the public that he would resign at the appropriate time and with the general budget on Thursday clearing the Legislative Yuan “the time has come,” he said.
At a legislative question-and-answer session in November last year about the government’s handling of the Puyuma Express accident, he was reminded of the three terms he served as a lawmaker, Lai said, adding that the period bolstered his belief that accountable governance is the bedrock of democracy and taking responsibility is the highest expression of that accountability.
Only by resigning could he help Tsai overcome old obstacles and perform better, opening up new frontiers, Lai said.
“Here is where we met and it is where we will part. If fate so decides, we will meet again on the road to making Taiwan great,” he said.
Several Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) officials including Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) are to be summoned for questioning and then transferred to prosecutors for holding an illegal assembly in Taipei last night, the Taipei Police said today. Chu and two others hosted an illegal assembly and are to be requested to explain their actions, the Taipei City Police Department's Zhongzheng (中正) First Precinct said, referring to a protest held after Huang Lu Chin-ju (黃呂錦茹), KMT Taipei's chapter director, and several other KMT staffers were questioned for alleged signature forgery in recall petitions against Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators. Taipei prosecutors had filed
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday established a friendship group with their counterparts in Ukraine to promote parliamentary exchanges between the two countries. A ceremony in Taipei for the Taiwan-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Association, initiated by DPP Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷), was attended by lawmakers and officials, including Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) and European Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan Director Lutz Gullner. The increasingly dire situation in Ukraine is a global concern, and Taiwan cannot turn its back when the latter is in need of help, as the two countries share many common values and interests,