For the past few days, the Executive Yuan's stance on the issue of salary freeze for civil servants seemed to be wavering. After claiming last Sunday that a pay rise would be premature at this point, Premier Wu Den-yih backpedalled on Tuesday by suggesting that governmental employees could be otherwise compensated through increased year-end bonus. But Wu refused to expound on the issue when asked for further confirmation..

On two consecutive occasions, Premier Wu Den-Yih avoided media questioning regarding whether military, civil servants or teachers will see 2 weeks of bonus pay next year.

Wu had no comment on this matter. However, the day before, at a tea reception with local print media, he said that there were many ways to adjust civil servant pay such as a 2 week bonus that may be preferable to a 4% or 3% adjustment.

Wu stressed that a 2 week bonus or salary adjustment would be dependent upon the economic performance in the 3d and 4th quarter to give citizens a better feeling that the government is not borrowing money to fund a civil servant salary increase.

Still, just one day after making these remarks, Wu was surprisingly unwilling to further discuss this matter, indicating that such a plan has yet to be decided.

With 5 municipal elections this year, this could become a political issue with the government still willing to listen to the public before making further announcements.