Taiwan shuffles cabinet after deadly typhoon (Roundup)

Sep 10, 2009, 10:52 GMT

   Taipei - Taiwan shuffled its cabinet Thursday in a bid to rebuild the government's image, tarnished over its handling of Typhoon Morakot.

   New Premier Wu Den-yih led a 40-member cabinet in taking oaths of office in a ceremony held several hours after his predecessor Liu Chao-shiuan led his cabinet to resign en masse.

   In the eight major ministries, there were five new faces: Foreign Minister Timothy Yang, Defence Minister Kao Hua-chu, Economics Minister Shih Yen-shiang, Interior Minister Jiang Yi-huah and Education Minister Wu Ching-ji. There were six other new faces now heading cabinet-level departments.

   Wu vowed to uphold the policies begun by Liu, including improvement of Taiwan-China relations.

   'The new cabinet will also do all it can to take care of thousands of victims' of Typhoon Morakot, Wu stressed.

   Liu quit Monday to take responsibility for the government's slow response to Morakot, which killed 758 people and was the deadliest storm to hit Taiwan in 50 years.

   President Ma Ying-jeou said Liu had asked to leave office in mid-August shortly after the typhoon wreaked havoc on the island but agreed to stay on to start reconstruction and relief work for the typhoon's victims.

   'After completing almost 90 per cent of relief and relocation work, premier Liu thought it was time to go and submitted his resignation again to me earlier this month,' Ma said.

   He said the new cabinet would be an 'action cabinet' that he hoped would effectively resolve problems facing the island, including those of the economy and relations with China. But what was more important was to restore the public support for the government, he said.

   'Only when we show concern for the general public will they show concern for us,' Ma said.

   The government's handling of the typhoon caused Ma's popularity to drop to 16 per cent, according to cable television channel TVBS.

   The National Chengchih University's polling centre put Ma's odds of winning re-election in 2012 at 53.6 per cent, down 8.1 per cent, for the same reason.

   Taiwan news media and political observers said the cabinet shuffle would have little impact on either economic and political conditions in Taiwan, given that the premier is merely the one who executes the orders of the president.