Letter to Dr. Lee Yuan Tseh

August 19, 2002 11:29 PM
To: ytlee@gate.sinica.edu.tw
Cc: rquinn@uchicago.edu; Ray Dah-tong; Paul Chow
Subject: Re: Human Rights Abuses at National Cheng Kung University

Dr. Lee Yuan Tseh
President,
Academia Sinica
Taipei, Taiwan

cc: Scholars at Risk

19 August 2002

Dear President Lee,

In January of 2001, the Ministry of Education Appeals Committee
canceled my dismissal from National Cheng Kung University in June
1999.
Since that decision, the Ministry of Education has sent letters urging
the university to comply with the ruling.
But I have yet to receive my retroactive contract and
compensation. Instead, National Cheng Kung University has engaged in
a
tactical battle of equivocation, delay, intimidation and harassment.
Secret accusations were used to effect my dismissal in March of
1999. The accusations were never investigated, I was not informed of
them, and I heard of my dismissal by hearsay. Two committee members
used as proof a letter they signed themselves. These “evaluations” of
me and other foreign professors were distributed in faculty mailboxes,
apparently to embarrass us among our Chinese colleagues.
Since a faculty union member questioned the legal status of my
dismissal, a secret letter against me was circulated at later appeal
committees. A student claimed without proof that I unfairly failed
her
eight years before. Although an official at the Ministry of Education
was incredulous such a letter would be accepted, the college dean
accepted it on the basis that the student said she was willing to go
to
court and repeat her claim.
I discredited the student’s letter in court. But at issue is why
a
university official would accept such a letter in the first place,
eight
years after the disputed grade, without any documentation other than
the
student’s claims, without informing the professor of the letter, and
then secretly circulating the letter at subsequent committee hearings?
Since then, I have been stonewalled seeking justice within the
university. First it was claimed the university could not arbitrate a
case pending in the courts. Then I was told that, although the
student
is now a doctoral candidate, she was not a student when she submitted
her letter, although she recently repeated her accusations, which
makes
her currently liable.
Apparent at National Cheng Kung University is a pattern of
ignoring
legal principles to persecute a foreign professor while invoking them
to
prevent a professor from righting wrongs. A Taiwan student can write
a
secret, unproved accusation to impugn a foreign professor, yet
officials
ingenuously evoke legal principles to protect the student.
The human rights and dignity of foreign professors in Taiwan
should
be protected. Apart from Taiwan’s own laws and Ministry regulations,
Taiwan faculty should reciprocate principles of due process guaranteed
Taiwan faculty abroad.
Judicial options are limited. My libel action against review
committee members was dismissed with the argument that committee
members
acted in good faith on the basis of an accusation letter. I was not
informed of the letter. It was not investigated. I was denied a
defense. Two members of the committee that dismissed me signed the
letter.
In my lawsuit against the student, now being appealed, a judge
ruled that since university officials never investigated her letter,
it
was, according to university rules, not acceptable evidence and
therefore could not have caused my dismissal. In other words,
evidence
the letter was dubious and illegal excuses the student from liability.
Why circulate the letter if it had no injurious effect?
I merely put my petition in perspective. Appeals to legislators,
newspapers, and human rights advocates have been an exercise in
futility. They seem more willing to evoke principles of human rights
on
their own behalf than on behalf of foreigners. They appear more
concerned to encourage foreigners to act on behalf of democracy in
Taiwan than to act on behalf of democracy themselves.
But there are moral and legal principles at stake that should be
protected, not only on behalf of foreign professors, but also on
behalf
of Taiwan democracy and the reputation of its academic institutions.
Legal violations related here should not be tolerated in a
country
that espouses democratic principles. Rulings should not be deferred
or
equivocated, but honored promptly and at face value.
Yet university officials have delayed enforcement of the Ministry
ruling for more than one and a half years, despite repeated requests
by
the Ministry of Education to comply. Moreover, the university
continues
to repeat and “investigate” accusations rejected by the Ministry. If
a
“final appeal” ruling simply enjoined further “investigations” then an
appeal would be pointless. Basic principles of law protect appellants
from recurrent defense, not only to discourage malicious accusations,
but also as a practical principle; since an individual cannot match
his
limited resources against the unlimited resources of malevolent power.
In view of the Ministry ruling, hearings based on accusations
rejected in the Ministry’s ruling of January 2001 should be prevented.
They are intended to harass, intimidate, and demoralize me. Yet no
official engaged in these recurrent hearings has been punished either
by
the Ministry of Education or the Control Yuan, despite official
complaints.
There is a difference between challenging a law and defying a
law.
University officials should know this. Yet the university lawyer
recently filed a lawsuit against the Ministry ruling. Despite
countless
university hearings before and after that ruling, the lawyer now
claims
foreigners have no right to appeal! Is such duplicity acceptable?
It would be morally wrong to claim this from the beginning. A
university is not supposed to discriminate against foreign faculty.
This violates principles of human rights that Taiwan officials make a
lot of noise about when disputing over Mainland China. But to claim
this after the appeal process favors the appellant is shameless.
Where is the honor in a defiance of law that can only tarnish the
reputation of National Cheng Kung University as a legitimate academic
institution? Moreover, since the university lawyer presumably acted
as
a public official, using tax-paid money, why did the Ministry of
Education allow him to use tax-paid money to contest the Ministry’s
own
ruling?
Can a Ministry ruling be defied? Is a university president
required to obey the law? Is the Ministry required to enforce the
law?
A university should protect its reputation. A business can
afford
unethical practices. Consumers look for bargains, not moral
principles. But a university that scorns moral principles has lost
credibility and therefore public standing.
Since the first dismissal action in March 1999, this case is now
in
its fourth year. Yet my Taiwan colleagues assured me that, based on
principles of law, the case could not possibly pass the College
committee in June of that year!
How is this abuse of human rights possible in a society espousing
Confucian principles of reciprocity as well as democratic principles
of
law? Do these principles apply only to Taiwan citizens?
Then I would argue these principles are neither Confucian nor
democratic. It is no good espousing democratic principles at
international conferences abroad, or evoking them in self-righteous
and
self-serving editorials condemning Mainland China, if these principles
are not observed at home.
The harassment of foreign faculty at National Cheng Kung
University
and evidently elsewhere in Taiwan is unacceptable. Academics and
human
rights advocates in Taiwan should also abide by the principles of
reciprocity and democracy they invoke for international sympathy and
support. The limited support I’ve received by Taiwan citizens
compares
unfavorably against the almost unlimited support Taiwan receives from
citizens in my own country and other democracies. Yet only public
advocacy by Taiwan citizens on behalf of foreigners here can effect
enforcement of human rights loudly proclaimed in Taiwan’s diplomacy.

Sincerely,

Professor Richard de Canio
Department of Foreign Languages and Literature
National Cheng Kung University
(06) 237 8626