Regarding compensation and an apology for human rights abuses at NCKU

Subject:
Regarding compensation and an apology for human rights abuses at NCKU
From:
rdca25@gmail.com
Date:
Wed, 28 Nov 2007 09:12:04 +0800
To:
em50000@email.ncku.edu.tw
CC:
higher@mail.moe.gov.tw

Ming Chiao-Lai
Office of the President
National Cheng Kung University
Tainan, Taiwan

cc: Ministry of Education

28 November 2007

Dear President Lai,

Please let us resolve outstanding human rights issues promptly. This is not a matter you can refer to other parties or other departments. We're not discussing a purchase of pencils, but abuses against an American professor.
The facts are plain and not open to dispute. I won a legal ruling from the Ministry of Education. National Cheng Kung University, which never contested my right to appeal during the appeal process, and held appeal hearings itself, then contested my right to appeal.
Ironically, though NCKU maintains academic exchanges and "education partnerships" with American universities (including the recent agreement with Temple University), NCKU has claimed in court that American professors have no legal rights in Taiwan!
The university cannot undo the history of its human rights violations in this case. But it can (and should) rectify, and compensate for, those abuses, showing thereby a sincere resolve of reform, without which it cannot stand as a legitimate academic institution.
I am asking you to commit yourself to such reform. The university's sincere and formal apology has already been long delayed.
Monetary compensation is part of a sincere admission of wrongdoing. This is part of international law and human rights principles.
I have incurred serious losses, financially and academically. An impartial committee, composed of members of our university's Faculty Union, can arbitrate a just monetary compensation for those losses, a decision by which both parties will agree to abide.
As a gesture of good will, and because of the dubious understanding of democratic process among officials here, I am prepared to defer (to a Higher Power) punitive actions against officials who defied the legal Ministry ruling, revived unproved accusations against me, tried to extort my resignation despite that ruling, and then contested that ruling in court.
I remind you, the Ministry of Education repeatedly warned your predecessor, Kao Chiang and his administration against their actions, to no avail. Therefore, university faculty and administrators behaved in a willful, malicious, duplicitous, and defiant manner.
The fact that not a single university official has been punished is cause for concern, considering Taiwan claims to be a democracy. Stubborn defiance of laws and human rights principles have no place in a true democracy. As president of a university, you surely know this.
Perhaps you think their actions can stand up to international human rights laws and principles. Then let us appeal this case to an international tribunal of academics and lawyers.
This case is now in its ninth year and still pending, primarily because of the university's stubborn arrogance. My country allows full human rights, dignity, and protection under the law to all citizens, with compensatory rights.
I'm asking that American citizens be treated the same in Taiwan. As president of this university, do you think that's an unreasonable request?
Regardless, in the end, it is the standards of the international community that will have the final say in this matter.

Sincerely,

Richard de Canio
Department of Foreign Languages and Literature
National Cheng Kung University
Tainan, Taiwan