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Officials offer resignations over Morakot mishandling

By Bao Daozu (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-08-20 09:10

TAIPEI: Taiwan's political storm surrounding Typhoon Morakot gained force Wednesday as the "defense minister" and "cabinet secretary" offered to resign over the government's slow emergency response.

A new poll suggested 46 percent of people in Taiwan had no confidence in the government's ability to handle reconstruction efforts as Taiwan leader Ma Ying-jeou's approval rating dropped to a near record low of 29 percent.

The number of confirmed dead meanwhile rose to 136, but Ma has warned the death toll could climb to more than 500, with 380 people feared buried by mudslides in the southern village of Hsiaolin alone.

Related readings:  Fundraising campaigns launched for Morakot victims  Relatives mourn for Typhoon Morakot victims  Taiwan agriculture suffers $371m loss in Typhoon Morakot  Over 1,400,000 affected by Morakot in Fujian  Million flee as Morakot slams coast

Angry survivors surrounded Ma during a visit Wednesday to Hsiaolin. Ma burned incense sticks and bowed before a muddy plain that 12 days earlier was a tidy village. "You've come way too late," one woman shouted at Ma in footage broadcast on cable news channels.

An official on condition of anonymity said "Defence Minister" Chen Chao-min and "Cabinet Secretary General" Hsueh Hsiang-chuan, in charge of coordination between ministries, had offered to step down.

The first political casualty was "vice-foreign minister" Andrew Hsia Li-yan, who tendered his resignation on Tuesday after refusing overseas aid.

Ma and senior officials began a news conference on Tuesday by bowing in a symbolic apology to the Taiwan people for not recognizing the magnitude of the disaster fast enough.

He promised a probe into mistakes made after the typhoon and vowed to punish officials found to have been negligent, once the probe's results are published next month.

AFP