Another Chen aide comes under pressure to quit
National security adviser Chiou I-jen may be next to go
The position of another top aide of Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian is looking increasingly unsteady as the president himself comes under mounting pressure to step down.
National Security Council Secretary-General Chiou I-jen, who advises the president on national security and foreign affairs, may be among aides to step down in a second round of the continuing power realignment, observers said.
The president has already approved the resignations of two of his right-hand men. Mr Chiou's resignation appeared more likely yesterday after a ruling party stalwart hinted he should step aside.
'The president has taken pains to let Ma Yung-cheng go. If [a close aide like] Ma, who has been criticised for faithfully executing the president's [directives] ... knows that he should resign, someone who has been criticised for his [manipulation] of cross-strait and US-Taiwan relations should do the same,' said senior Democratic Progressive Party legislator Lin Cho-shui.
Two of President Chen's closest aides - Mr Ma, deputy secretary-general to the president, and Lin Chin-chang, an advisory member to the National Security Council - resigned on Thursday after Mr Chen announced his decision to delegate more authority to Premier Su Tseng-chang a day earlier.
Their resignations have been characterised by opposition leaders as damage control.
Mr Chen is coming under increasing pressure to step down over a snowballing insider-trading scandal implicating his son-in-law, and allegations the president's wife, Wu Shu-chen, has accepted financial advantages.
Mr Ma has been accused by the opposition of influence-peddling over key personnel changes in various government banks and enterprises.
To quell the public anger and ease pressure on him to resign, Mr Chen, whose popularity has plummeted to a record low of 11 per cent according to one recent opinion poll, declared on Wednesday he would relinquish some powers to the premier to make room for future government reforms.
A DPP source said many party members felt that now Mr Ma and Mr Lin had resigned, Mr Chiou should follow suit.
Mr Chiou has come under fire from the opposition and from within the DPP for infuriating the US, and starting a row between Washington and Mr Chen relating to several of the president's decisions, including the scrapping of the National Unification Council.
Mr Chiou was believed to be at least partly responsible for Mr Chen's announcement earlier this year to scrap the council - an advisory body tasked with eventual cross-strait reunification.
That move caught the United States, Taiwan's biggest informal ally, off guard, and provoked the mainland, resulting in the escalation of cross-strait tensions.
Meanwhile, Mr Chen announced in a brief statement released last night he would no longer appoint any presidential advisers this year, to show his determination to delegate powers to the premier and 'live up to the expectations of the public'.
Mr Chen's latest announcement came after Premier Su said he had no plans to reshuffle the cabinet.
