TAIWAN PREMIER QUITS OVER DEADLY TYPHOON

TAIPEI, Sept 8 — Taiwan’s premier quit yesterday and said his cabinet was also prepared to resign over the heavily criticised response to last month’s deadly typhoon, but the political and economic impact was expected to be limited.

• While public anger over the handling of the disaster has been the toughest test for President Ma Ying-jeou since he took office last year, analysts said they expected no major fallout.
• “Taiwan is politically similar to South Korea where real power sits with the president, and there is unlikely to be much political instability as a result of the premier’s resignation,” said Daniel Soh, an economist at Forecast Limited in Singapore.
• Premier Liu Chao-shiuan, the appointed head of Taiwan’s cabinet, told a news conference he would leave. He said other ministers would offer to do the same on Thursday over the perceived slow response to Typhoon Morakot, which killed up to 758 people as it drenched the island from Aug. 7-9.
• Ma accepted Liu’s resignation and appointed Wu Den-yih, a colourful and outspoken ruling party official, to take his place, the president’s office said.
• Wu, 61, is the Nationalist Party (KMT) secretary-general and a legislator who earlier served as mayor of Kaohsiung, a major port city, for eight years.
• Wu told a news conference he would abide by the principles espoused by Ma since taking office last year, a centrepiece of which are the pursuit of peace and stronger economic links with long-time rival China. China claims sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan and has threatened to use force, if necessary, against it.
• Taiwan’s low-profile Vice-Premier Paul Chiu also resigned yesterday. Chu Li-lun, a county magistrate and a KMT rising star, was named to replace him, the president’s office said.
• Morakot triggered massive landslides that wiped out whole sections of villages in the island’s southern mountains.
• “I’m the top administrator and all of the political responsibility rests on my shoulders, so I offered my resignation to the president, and he agreed,” Liu told a news conference.
• The ruling party faces tough local elections in December and the two new cabinet appointments may not be enough to ease anger in the disaster area spanning six counties, said Hsu Yung-ming, a political science professor at Soochow University in Taipei.
• “They need to see the full new cabinet line-up,” Hsu said. “Taiwan’s custom is for the premier to quit. But it’s going to be hard. Wu’s image isn’t as good as Liu’s was.”
• Liu’s departure is the first shakeup in the cabinet since Ma was elected. Taiwan’s defence minister and other officials offered to resign last month, but their offers are still pending.
• The announcements were issued after the Taiwan stock market had closed up 1 percent at its highest close in nearly a year, and the Taiwan dollar rose to a one-week high.
• “People were expecting change, they were prepared for change,” said Andrew Deng, assistant vice president at Taiwan International Securities Corp.
• “What’s important now is who’s going to be steering the wheel for the island’s economy. Investors will remain cautious before the government announces its new cabinet members.”

Source: Reuters