Subject: Regarding human rights abuses at National Cheng Kung University in
Tainan; a public call for the dismissal of Kao Chiang as president of that
university.To: moe
Vice-President Lu
letters@taipeitimes.com, eyemail@eyemail.gio.gov.tw,
peu03@mail.gio.gov.tw, editor@it.chinatimes.com.tw,
edop@etaiwannews.com, editor@etaiwannews.com,
info@chinapost.com.tw
The Ministry of Education
Department of Higher Education
13 February 2004
I am writing your office to publicly request the removal from office of Kao
Chiang (06-2757575-5000), currently president of National Cheng Kung
University.
Professor Kao defied a legal Minstry of Education ruling in 2001 for
more than two years. Even after finally complying with that ruling, in May
2003, he has denied full enforcement of it, allowing revivals of accusations
rejected in that ruling, while denying full compensation, payments, and
official apology.
The president of Taiwan, President Chen, recently reminded a young boy
in a custody case that even the president of Taiwan had to obey the law.
Yet the president of a university is allowed to defy the law without penalty
and even remain as president of that university.
This is a moral issue as well as a legal issue. How can a national
university maintain academic credibility if its head administrator defies
legal and moral principles?
After the Ministry of Education Appeal Committee cancleed my dismissal,
the university used taxpayers' money to contest my employment in court,
claiming foreign faculty had no right to appeal, although the university
held countless appeal hearings in my case and never contested the Ministry
appeal process until it lost.
Such behavior cannot be condoned on legal principle. It is dishonest
trickery. Such trickery might be allowed a private salesman, but not a
public official, least of all a university head. Can a university that
insults legal and moral principles uphold its reputation as an academic
institution?
After delaying compliance with the Ministry ruling for more than two
years, the university spitefully revived accusations rejected in that
ruling, attempting to deny me annual increments and promotion as
punishment. In other words, at National Cheng Kung University a professor
is punished not because he lost a Ministry ruling, but because he won!
What kind of legal or moral logic is this? A ruling in an appellant's
favor is supposed to protect him from punishment not provoke punishment.
How can a legitimate academic institution, indeed one that is fourth-ranked
in the nation, behave like this if Taiwan is, as claimed, a beacon of
democracy among Asian nations?
Yet several years ago a conflict of interest case at a Hong Kong
university made headline news in all the Hong Kong media for days, while
students protested on campus. My case, involving serious rights violations,
has lasted more than four years and has aroused little interest in Taiwan.
One NCKU dean protested that the university must be following laws, since it
follows the advice of a lawyer! A gradeschool child would have more common
sense than that. We might expect excuses of noncompliance on the part of an
uncle, but not a university president. If a university does not obey laws
(not to mention moral and legal principles upheld in international human
rights charters, to which Taiwan subscribes) how can the university be
accredited? If the university can publicly defy the Ministry of Education
like this, one must assume there is no regulation of the university except
in a merely technical sense: laws and quorums are referred to, committees
vote, and minutes are produced. But this is the form of democracy with no
substance.
I am faced with a case that has lasted into its fifth year, with no end
in sight. The Ministry of Education has not punished these officials;
niether has the Control Yuan. Human rights organizations in Taiwan seem
more concerned about making Mainland China a human rights issue than
handling human rights issues in Taiwan. Other government agencies issue
robot replies affirming they have received my email. Meanwhile, Dean Ko
Huei-chen (06-2757575-50300), of the Office of Student Affairs, has refused
for more than two years to discipline a student who wrote a secret spiteful
letter used at my dismissal hearings in 1999.
Taiwan citizens and taxpayers have the right to demand the best from
their officials. They have the right to demand that officials not waste
their money. But when a university files a lawsuit to contest a legal
Ministry ruling, that is wasting taxpayers' money, which could be better
spent on scholarships for needy students. Administrative remedy that should
take days or weeks at most but continues for five years is a waste of
taxpayers' money. Officials who should be attending meetings to improve
university education but instead attend repeated hearings in a case on which
the Ministry has already ruled is, apart from my legal rights, a waste of
taxpayers' money. Officials who should be doing all in their power to
uphold or improve the reputation of their university but behave in a
reckless manner scornful of law are using taxpayers' money to discredit
their university.
Sincerely,
Professor Richard de Canio
Department of Foreign Languages and Literature
National Cheng Kung University
Tainan, Taiwan
(06) 237 8626
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