Letter to the Control Yuan in Taiwan

11/12/2003 10:31 AM


11 November 2003

An Open Letter to the Control Yuan

cc: The China News

Dear Control Yuan members,

I find it beyond belief that your two rulings on the case of my illegal
dismissal from National Cheng Kung University in 1999 found no official
misconduct. Even worse, as I understand, no reasons were given for your
conclusion. Yet rulings by the highest watchdog body in Taiwan should be
based on legal principles.
If secret meetings, unproved accusations, and the circulation of a
secret letter at official hearings are acceptable, why claim human rights in
Taiwan? If laws can be ignored, there are laws but no law.
Abuses at our university went beyond ignoring laws. The university
president and his lawyer defied a Ministry ruling for more than two years,
costing taxpayers millions of dollars. A watchdog body should protect its
citizens, not the officials who betray them.
After the appeal, the university argued that foreigners have no right
to appeal. This would be shameful to argue before the ruling, but shameless
to argue after it.
The university then contested the ruling in court. This was not only a
slap in the face of the law. It showed scorn for moral principles by an
institution of higher learning supposed to uphold those principles.
Schools teach honesty, fair play, and obedience to the law. By law,
officials must comply with rulings. A final appeal is final, not subject to
revival. A legal challenge is made before the ruling, not after it.
Officials execute laws; they don’t “interpret” them. Only the high court
interprets laws.
But unpunished for their misconduct, officials prosper by it. The
university president was reelected to a second term, yet I have still not
received a formal apology. I have still not received compensation.
Accusations discredited at the Ministry hearing are repeatedly revived.
Rights were ignored to discredit me with a secret student letter, then used
to protect the student from punishment.
Officials rely on rights when living abroad but deny them to foreigners
here. This not only violates the law, but also moral principles known in
both Western and Confucian societies.
Confucius said a gentleman admits his mistakes. Yet our officials lack
moral sense to do so. They are a law to themselves. Like children, they
are sore losers. They don’t admit wrongs or apologize. They say they’re
right, though they’re proved wrong. Their feelings are easily hurt but they
easily hurt the feelings of others. Their sense of compromise is to give
half of what’s due. Their way of harmony is to make others do things their
way. They enforce laws by deciding which to enforce. Their idea of justice
is to cooperate with unjust colleagues. They are less concerned with the
force of law than with the pressure of relationships.
This fits the profile of juvenile offenders more than that of public
officials. Except juveniles have a sense of shame.
Rulings, like rules, are tested by general use. According to your
ruling, there are laws but no law, or enforcement of laws. Laws are for
officials to interpret, apply, or ignore at will.
Such rulings encourage a culture of arrogance among officials. They
think they are the law instead of answerable to the law.
This caused the SARS crisis last year, as you recognized in blaming
hospital officials. But though you blame officials for not enforcing laws
at a hospital, you find officials blameless for not enforcing laws at a
university.
Confucius warned we must correct the names. Defiance of a Ministry
ruling should not be called “interpretation of the law” if it’s obstruction
of justice. Secret accusations and revival of discredited accusations
should not be called review if it’s harassment. Administrative remedy that
takes years is no remedy.
Confucius said the Tao does not enlarge man but man enlarges the Tao.
Heaven does not give us justice but only the power to exercise it. I ask
that you exercise that power.
I have therefore appealed to the Control Yuan appeal committee.
I request punishment of officials involved in my dismissal.
I request full compensation.
I request an admission of wrongdoing and a formal apology from my
university.
I request formal discipline of the student who wrote a malicious letter
secretly circulated at my dismissal hearings.
I request punishment of the dean who has prevented a formal meeting
with this student.
The policy in Taiwan whereby the feelings of Taiwan officials are
placed above the rights of foreigners must stop.
This is not only an issue of rights. Foreigners have feelings too.

Sincerely,

Professor Richard de Canio
Department of Foreign Languages and Literature
National Cheng Kung University
Tainan, Taiwan
(06) 237 8626
(06) 2757575-52235