Hsieh may decide on resigners by end of week

Both Council of Labor Affairs Chairwoman Chen Chu and Acting Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai have tendered their resignations and held separate press conferences to air their feelings.

Premier Hsieh said yesterday that he will wait until the gathering of all the facts and a thorough probe into the affair are completed.

The investigation is being conducted by Cabinet Minister Hsu Zhi-hsiung.

Thai laborers working on the Kaohsiung mass rapid transit (MRT) system rioted Aug. 21 over poor housing and living conditions and the abuse of their human rights.

The generally benign Thai workers vented their anger against what they perceived as harsh management and poor living conditions.

Chen Chu said she wanted to step down mainly because of the CLA’s inadequate supervision of the treatment to Thai workers not to harbor the ambition of running for Kaohsiung mayor.

For now, Hsieh attempts to keep both Chens for the stability of his administration.

During a visit to the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park, Hsieh called on the public not to encourage a culture of “the more you do, the more mistakes you make” that will scare away competent and responsible people from serving in government.

He also asked the people not to demand somebody’s head immediately after a scandal erupts. Such a move, he said, will blur the focus of the issues.

Hsieh praised Chen Chu for being a “brave and responsible” Cabinet member who has made a great contributions to the government. If such a good minister leaves the government because of unreasonable pressure, it will be “a loss for society,” he added.

He said that he had told both Chens to calm down since speculation on the incident has caused people to lose sight of the critical points at issue.

For example, he said the media are demanding to know how the decision was made to build the Kaohsiung MRT as a BOT (build-operate-transfer) project? Moreover, why has the government invested NT$150 billion, only to hand over the project to the private sector without ever thinking of monitoring the process by itself?

He said the central issues here are: who made that critical decision and when? “These critical issues have not been discussed,” he claimed, noting that all the answers actually can be found in official documents.

Hsieh served as Kaohsiung mayor before being appointed as premier.

As to the political responsibility for the fiasco, he said both Chens have some “responsibility of supervision,” but to what extent should they be held accountable has yet to be determined.

He said he will wait for the report that will determine the administrative responsibility of all officials related to the incident before deciding whether to accept their requests to quit.

After CLA Chairwoman Chen held her press conference on Monday to lament over the plight and human rights infringement faced by Thai workers, Acting Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai held is own press conference yesterday with an apology to the public over the controversy triggered by the riot staged by Thai laborers working for the city’s MRT system.

Chen was several times choked with emotion when he read a statement, stressing that the ordeal he had been through since the Aug. 21 riot was greater than he had originally expected.

He left after reading the statement without responding to any questions from reporters.

Chen said that after the riot, he had offered to resign verbally to Premier Hsieh Aug. 28 and tendered his resignation to the Executive Yuan Aug. 30 again to shoulder his political responsibility as chief administrator of the city.

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