pianoangel's little world

By TING-I TSAI

TAIPEI -- Two senior Taiwanese officials offered to resign Wednesday to take responsibility for the slow emergency response to Typhoon Morakot, but the government's display of remorse -- including several apologies from President Ma Ying-jeow -- showed few signs of calming public anger.

Some analysts say the government's lack of decisiveness in handling the aftermath of the typhoon, which killed hundreds in mountain villages, could make it harder for Mr. Ma to sell his agenda of rapprochement with China to skeptical legislators and the public.

On Tuesday, another senior official, Vice Foreign Minister Andrew Hsia, offered to resign over criticism of the ministry's initial rejection of overseas offers of aid.

Premier Liu Chao-shiuan reiterated Wednesday that a cabinet reshuffle wouldn't be discussed before early September. None of the resignations would be dealt with before then, he said.

The military has been harshly criticized for assigning only 8,000 personnel to rescue work after the typhoon dumped more than 80 inches of rain in southern Taiwan over the weekend of Aug. 8, trapping thousands of villagers in mudslides. After they realized the scale of the disaster, military leaders assigned more than 55,000 troops to the effort.

Mr. Ma, who won election last year with more than 58% of the vote, has apologized several times. In a Tuesday news conference aiming at defending his leadership, he said his administration will investigate officials who failed to perform.

But Mr. Ma's assurances appear to have failed to win over the public. According to a poll conducted by the pro-government United Daily News and published Wednesday, 46% of people said they had no confidence in the government's capability to handle the reconstruction efforts, while Mr. Ma's approval rating dropped to a record low of 29%.

The public doesn't trust his leadership anymore," said Antonio Chiang, a deputy secretary-general of the National Security Council in the previous government.

source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125070590457643725.html#articleTabs%3Darticle