In Taipei

CHINA'S product quality tsar Li Changjiang and senior officials from Shijiazhuang, where milk-maker Sanlu is based, lost their official hats over tainted milk.

One unlikely political casualty though was Taiwan's health minister Lin Fang-yue, who resigned last week amid a chorus of criticism and a puddle of wasted milk coffee.

What has tainted milk from China got to do with him?

Well, from the start, health officials here were criticised for being slow. They were roundly castigated for what was perceived to be their cavalier response. At the start, they reportedly told consumers not to worry and to just drink lots of water.

They also created confusion for consumers and businesses when they first declared zero tolerance for melamime in food products, before raising permissible levels to 2.55 parts per million.

The opposition and media had a field day, milking the government's flip-flop for all its worth.

Opposition lawmakers whipped out their aprons and made cups of 3-in-1 instant coffee to offer to premier Liu Chao-shiuan and health minister Lin, daring them to drink.

Both declined.

The TV news channels lapped up the drama, showing gratuitous replays of Opposition MPs goading top officials to down 3-in-1 coffee.

It was no joke though for coffee drinkers here, who were waking up without the certainty of knowing which brand was safe.

But people here are generally forgiving and the unlucky Mr Lin should have waited for the storm to blow over.

Because when typhoon Jangmi made a stop-over in Taiwan over the weekend, people forgot about milk.

Still, new health minister Yeh Ching-chuan was taking no chances.

The Taiwanese media reported how Mr Yeh called for a press conference every day to clarify his ministry's policies and personally called up reporters to make sure everything was clear.

As cameras rolled, the health minister and his men gulped down 3-in-1 coffee drinks and munched on pastries to drive home the message that things were in control.

One newspaper even noted with approval how the Harvard-trained Mr Yeh was not beyond 'lowering' himself to drink kopi in public.

Incidentally, politics, instant kopi and prestigious universities do mix in Singapore too.

Just a month ago, Nominated MP Thio Li-ann invoked memories of her time spent in Cambridge, "huddled over dusty legal tomes with a comforting chocolate croissant and instant Nescafe coffee mix", in a parliamentary speech about by-election laws.

Anyway, back to Taiwan. Drink or not drink, it doesn't matter.

As the milk saga turns stale, the good news for the goverment is that the media is not paying that much attention any more.