Letter to Taiwan Ministry of Education

22 February, 2002

Dear Minister Huang,

I wish to make it clear that the impending lawsuit against me by National
Cheng Kung University is unacceptable. It is clearly a violation of my
human rights in Taiwan.
The Taiwan government is, in effect, tolerating abuse by its own public
officials in order to challenge legal benefits that its own government
agency, the Ministry of Education, has already awarded me in a legally
sanctioned appeal process. To allow such a civil action against me is not
only an abuse of public power and tax-paid money (presumably tolerated by
Taiwan’s government), but it would subject me to both public ridicule and
contempt.
In a lawful society, the awards of a legally sanctioned appeal process
can not, under any circumstances, be nullified, nor its benefits delayed. I
have already tolerated abuses of my rights in Taiwan long enough.
And I would like to state that the Ministry of Education has shown
little respect, regard, or sympathy for me during that time. I have yet to
receive a personal phone call from any Minister of Education to show
personal concern for my situation or a sense of personal responsibility for
the lack of legal protections in my case. Nobody from the Ministry of
Education offered to take care of my visa problems during this long period.
Nobody from the Ministry of Education offered to indemnify my medical
expenses while I was illegally deprived of my medical insurance.
On the other hand, the American government, attempting to resolve a
foreign child custody case, directly supported the father of Elian Gonzalez,
even though he was from an "enemy country," granting him an indefinite visa,
a government residence, and all amenities, finally resolving the case, on
his behalf, by force. Conversely, officials from the Ministry of Education
merely encouraged me to file a personal lawsuit against the university in
order to effect compliance with the Ministry’s ruling! This not only
undermines the pretense of democracy in Taiwan, but of law itself.
The American government is spending millions of US dollars in defense
of Taiwan, at least partly because Taiwan espouses democratic principles.
The least Taiwan can do is to invest a few thousand NT dollars in defense of
American citizens in Taiwan based on those same democratic principles.
If there is law in Taiwan it seems clear to me what must be done. The
president of National Cheng Kung University, who has been in defiance of the
Ministry ruling, and who continues to tolerate abuses of power at his
university, must be dismissed as president. Legal counsel responsible for
advising such abuses of power and obstruction of justice should also be
punished.
This is what democracy means. Democracy does not mean, as one
representative from the Ministry of Education said, that, in Taiwan,
"teachers are above the law." (I have a Taiwan witness to this statement.)
I will not passively accept the university’s impending lawsuit and the
legal insult against my rights, honor, and dignity as an American citizen in
Taiwan. I am requesting that the Ministry of Education immediately notify
National Cheng Kung University officials that the impending lawsuit against
me is an abuse of power and of tax-paid money, as well as of my rights as an
American citizen in Taiwan, and that their lawsuit must be dismissed within
one working day. The Taiwan government must then effect full closure of
this case within a few days.
As far as I am concerned, I have shown more than human patience, and
even some sympathy, in respect of Taiwan’s uncertain democracy. But my
toleration is at an end. Unless I hear a definite response to this fax by
the end of the day, I will make full appeal to officials at the highest
levels of the American government as well as to other branches of the Taiwan
government.