Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said that Taipei Agricultural Products Marketing Co’s board dismissing general manager Wu Yin-ning (吳音寧) had nothing to do with him.
Wu was embroiled in several controversies earlier this year, was repeatedly called unqualified for the job by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) city councilors and was criticized by Ko over her refusal to report to the Taipei City Council.
She was backed by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members and the Council of Agriculture (COA), which appointed her in June last year.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
However, after the DPP suffered crushing losses in the nine-in-one elections last Saturday, COA Minister Lin Tsung-hsien (林聰賢) on Wednesday said that “Wu’s task for this stage is finished,” and the COA introduced a motion at a company board meeting on Thursday to dismiss Wu, which passed and took immediate effect.
The move was viewed by many as the DPP extending an olive branch to Ko, whom the party did not support for re-election.
In response to media queries, Ko said that Wu’s dismissal was none of his business, and he had already made it clear that it was up to the COA to pick a suitable person for the job.
DPP city councilors previously insisted that then-company general manager Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) report to the city council, Ko said, adding that KMT city councilors therefore applied the same standards to Wu.
He added that he told Wu and the COA that she must report to the city council, but she refused, and her dismissal is an instance of the DPP dealing with its own problems.
KMT Taipei city councilor-elect Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) wrote on Facebook that the COA dismissing Wu was merciless and the DPP was “treating symptoms, rather than addressing fundamental problems” by randomly looking for people to blame after the elections.
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