-------- Original Message --------
| Subject: | Regarding Ming-Chiao Lai's delays in handling the case at National Cheng Kung University |
|---|---|
| Date: | Fri, 11 Jan 2008 17:09:56 +0800 |
| From: | rdca25@gmail.com |
| To: | MOE <higher@mail.moe.gov.tw> |
| CC: | em50000@email.ncku.edu.tw, em50010@email.ncku.edu.tw, ncku.sevp@sevp.ncku.edu.tw, em50020@email.ncku.edu.tw, peu03@mail.gio.gov.tw, ncku.sevp@sevp.ncku.edu.tw |
Minister of Education
Ministry of Education
Taipei, Taiwan
ROC
cc: Michael Ming-Chiao Lai, president, National Cheng Kung University
Dr. Hwung-Hweng Hwung), Senior Executive Vice-President
Dr. Da-Hsuan Feng, Senior Executive Vice-President
The Secreatariat, The Secretary-General, Woei-Shyan Lee
Prime Minister
11 January 2008
Dear Minister Tu,
Once again I am asking that you enforce human rights at National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan. I have repeatedly appealed for redress for my illegal dismissal in 1999, including a formal apology and compensation, but to no avail. Though the university has started coffee house meetings for faculty and students on campus, I would think that effecting justice in human rights issues is of more importance.
Personally I find it insulting that even as NCKU ignores my appeal for redress for human rights violations committed against me, it is maintaining academic exchanges with US universities such as Temple University and US sister universities, and even with US lawmakers. Professor Lai Ming-Chiao and his associates at our university have got to realize that redress is a necessary part of human rights enforcement, without which no university can stand in the eyes of other democracies. Their attempt to delay the process of redress will bring discredit to this university.
Apart from human rights issues, no professor wishes to be treated like a fool. It took the university only days to effect an illegal dismissal against me in 1999, but now it takes them months or years to "gather facts" in the cause of justice.
What facts are they looking for? For more than two years, the former university president, Kao Chiang, refused to enforce a legal Ministry ruling of 8 January 2001. Instead, though they participated in the appeal at the MOE and held review and appeal hearings right here at this university, these same officials, after losing, refused to honor the ruling and even claimed I had no right to appeal.
If I had no right to appeal, why did university officials hold appeal hearings or attend them at the MOE? This kind of duplicity might pass in Taiwan, but I can assure you it will never be accepted by international scholars.
Does it take a rocket scientist to see human rights violations here?
Does it take a rocket scientist to see duplicity when the same university that claims foreigners (specifically Americans) have no right to appeal then tries to maintain legitimate ties with American universities and even congressional officials, presumably on the basis of human rights principles and fair play? If Taiwan citizens want democracy so badly, then why don't you fight for it first here in Taiwan before you ask other countries to fight for you?
The facts are plain enough, assuming one is educated in legal principles and human rights. Moreover, one has the right to assume that any president of a university in a democratic country is so educated and will take prompt and appropriate action upon being informed of human rights violations. By "prompt and appropraite action," I don't mean months or years; I mean days. A university president who is unable or unwilling to do this should be dismised from office.
If a woman appeals to university officials with a torn dress and bruises on her face, are these officials going to investigate for months or years before they "detemine the facts of the case"? Or, assuming sincerity, are the facts of the case fairly evident, at least to start an initial and prompt investigation?
Democracy cannot be won in the international press, by editorials about how democratic Taiwan is. It's won by people fighting to redress injustice everywhere they see it.
The facts in my case are plain enough. I won an appeal. The same officials who participated in that appeal, and even held appeal hearings themselves, contested my right to appeal after I won.
Such duplicity is unacceptable, by international standards if not by Taiwan standards. Even after losing its claim that "foreigners" have no right to appeal—morally dubious as it was to begin with, since Taiwan students and faculty are protected in the US—the university still contested my right to compensation in the courts.
Meanwhile, the university president who defied a legal Minsitry ruling for more than two years has never been punished, nor have other officials who circulated secret accusatory letters and held dismissal hearings outside of due process of law (for example, I was neither notified of the dismissal hearing nor of accusations against me, nor were these accusations proved).
This case has taken up nine years of my life. Why should I be denied compensation or the satisfaction of knowing the university that violated my rights has paid a settlement for doing so? Why should I be denied a formal apology, not only as a formal vindication, but as an earnest of reformation on the part of our university administration?
Without a formal apology, how can I insure the university does not create a revisionist history of this case by arguing now or years from now, "If we had done something wrong, we would have issued an apology, but we never issued such an apology." In fact, that's exactly what an NCKU official did argue several years ago: "If we had done something wrong, the Ministry of Education would have punished us by now."
That kind of argument might pass muster in Taiwan but not anywhere outside Taiwan. I doubt if in any other university in the world outside of Taiwan a university president could defy a Ministry ruling for more than two years and not only not be punished for it, but actually be approved for a second three-year term following his defiance.
Once again let me assure you, I am committed to a formal resolution of this case, no matter what legal channels, local or international, I must use to effect such closure.
Sincerely,
Richard de Canio
Department of Foreign Languages and Literature
National Cheng Kung University
Tainan, Taiwan
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