Letter to Taiwan Ministry of Education

To: The Minister of Education,
Dr. OVID TZENG

Dear Minister Tzeng,

This FAX is a reminder of the responsibilities of the Ministry of
Education regarding the case of Professor Richard de Canio's appeal
against his dismissal from National Cheng Kung University in June of
1999.
I will not go over this case again, because the issues are by now well
known.
I will remind the Ministry, however, that I won no fewer than TWO
appeals, one at the University appeal level in December of 1999 and
another one at the Ministry level in early 2001. Yet both appeal
victories have been ignored by National Cheng Kung University.
I respectfully remind the Ministry that National Cheng Kung University
is in defiance of these rulings; in defiance of Taiwan laws; in defiance
of the Ministry's repeated warnings to issue the contract; and, finally,
in defiance of universal principles of morality, honesty, and fair
play.
Even apart from the Law, sacred as the law is, where in the world would
a university show such scorn for moral values that it would claim that
when a person wins an appeal he merely wins the right to appeal again?
What if American universities treated Taiwan professors and students in
the same way, based on the principle of reciprocity so valued in Chinese
culture?
I think both the moral and legal issues are plain here. Yet none of the
officials in authority at National Cheng Kung University have yet been
punished; nor, in fact, do they seem to be concerned about legal
consequences over their failure to observe legal rulings, despite
pressure from both the Ministry and now the Control Yuan.
I, as a foreinger, do not understand how such a defiance of the law and
legal rulings is possible if Taiwan is an "advanced democracy." I do
know that Taiwan professors are protected by laws in my country; and
that protection involves a hierarchy of legal authority that is
routine. In very rare cases where a legal ruling is defied by American
officials, such as the famous Elian Gonzalez Cuban custody case, the
government used armed force to enforce the law. Because a democracy is
a government of laws; and those laws should be executed at any cost.
Now in the Elian Gonzalez case, the government delayed a little,
understandably; because the welfare of a child was at stake. However,
this case, in Taiwan, at National Cheng Kung University, involves no
child held hostage.
Why then does the Ministry allow National Cheng Kung University
officials to defy the law in this way?
A Ministry represents the most visible face of the law in its division
of government (Education, Justice, etc.). To undermine confidence in
that Ministry's ability to effect its own legal rulings is to undermine
confidence in the law itself.
Officials at National Cheng Kung University, beginning with Professor
Kao Chiang, should not be allowed to defy the law in this public
manner. Nor should an individual be denied justice according to the law
established in a democracy, whether he is a foreigner or not. I won an
appeal according to established principles of an appeal process and this
case should have been resolved a long time ago. In other words, I
should have received my teaching contract, back pay, and all related
compensation regarding trips abroad during the adjudication of this
case.
Yet I have yet to receive any practical benefits in my legal victory.
In the meantime, I have had to live on borrowed savings and without
health insurance.
Please understand, my patience has worn out. We seem to be going around
in circles to no end. Instead, I have suffered endless humiliation from
university officials, who, in defiance of legal rulings, Minsitry
warnings, my own cautionary letters, and universal principles of
morality and justice, continue to empanel committees to "review" me.
This travesty of justice must stop. To say that there are laws in
Taiwan but that those laws cannot be enforced is really to say there are
no laws in Taiwan.
Please observe the principle of reciprocity here. Taiwan citizens are
protected by American laws in America; I wish to be protected by Taiwan
laws in Taiwan. To the extent to which this is not realized in
practice, is the extent to which the principle of reciprocity, as well
as law, has been violated. I respectfully ask you to understand that the
friendship between two countries involves responsibilities to foreign
citizens as well as rights claimed by one's own citizens in foreign
countries.

Sincerely,

Professor Richard de Canio
Tainan, Taiwan
(06) 237 862