‘MA’S INBREEDING’The new Presidential Office spokesman’s wife was reportedly hired for Ma’s office before the post was publicly advertised
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
A media report that the Executive Yuan is about to hire the wife of new presidential spokesperson Yin Wei (殷瑋) drew criticism yesterday.
The report comes amid a series of government hirings, which the opposition describes as “political rewards” for people in President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) “inner circle.”
The Chinese-language Apple Daily yesterday cited an unidentified person as saying that the Executive Yuan had interviewed Yin’s wife, Yeh Nai-yu (葉乃瑜), in private for a position at the newly established new media department and that she would be hired, even though the vacancy has yet to be announced publicly.
Yin, former deputy director of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Culture and Communications Committee, was appointed spokesperson for the Presidential Office on Saturday.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) yesterday accused the Executive Yuan of “black-box” hiring” dseigned he said to only reward “comrades.”
Executive Yuan spokesperson Sun Lih-chyun (孫立群) rejected the accusation, saying the office is not holding open recruitment and that Yeh “was the only candidate who has rich experience in filmmaking and policy promotion and communication.”
Sun said he could not think who could have recommended Yeh for the position.
Responding to the report on Facebook, Yeh denied taking advantage of her husband’s position to apply for the job.
She said she had worked in the Presidential Office for three years in related fields and had resigned upon Yin’s transfer to the Presidential Office.
Yeh said she could have stayed if she wanted to exploit Yin’s power, but added that she was willing to give up the job opportunity if Yin asked her to.
The 26-year-old, who previously worked for the KMT’s Youth Corps, described the report and the public discourse on the issue as “gender discrimination and male chauvinism.”
The media report came on the heels of the Taiwan Provincial Government’s controversial rehiring of former civil servant Kuo Kuan-ying (郭冠英).
Kuo had been dismissed in 2009 for making derogatory remarks about ethnic Taiwanese in several articles that he published under his pseudonym, Fan Lan-chin (范蘭欽), during the time he served as an official at the now-defunct Government Information Office in Toronto, Canada.
The Control Yuan’s investigation into the case is ongoing.
Meanwhile, former New Party legislator Hsieh Chi-ta (謝啟大) on Thursday resigned as a senior specialist in the Taipei City Government’s secretariat, amid controversy that she was hired to help her meet her pension requirements.
“These cases obviously represent the [Ma] regime’s political rewards for those in the ‘inner circle,’ which disregards public opinion or candidates’ expertise, and instead reflects the long-standing phenomenon of the Ma administration’s ‘inbreeding,’” DPP Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) said.