Re: Your concern over human rights

Kaohsiung City Council
No.192, Zhongzheng 4th Rd.,
Qianjin District,
Kaohsiung City 801,
Taiwan (R.O.C.)

18 October 2010

Dear Council Members:

I was quite impressed by the Kaohsiung City Council's formal dedication to human rights in Mainland China, and your principled determination that "the city government and private organizations not be allowed to invite to the city Chinese officials who have been accused of violating human rights" (The Taipei Times October 18, 2010, p. 1).
    I'm curious, however, if the Kaohsiung City Council would apply its resolution to Taiwanese officials who violate human rights as well. In 1999 I was illegally dismissed from National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) in Tainan. Although I won a Ministry of Education appeal ruling in January, 2001, the university's president, Kao Chiang, refused to enforce that ruling for nearly two and a half years, despite eight warning letters from the Ministry of Education (attached).
    The current university president,  Lai Ming-Chiao, has ignored my request for an official apology for these human rights violations. The president-elect, Hwung-Hweng Hwung, has also not responded.
    According to the Taipei Times article, "Kaohsiung City is a modern metropolis that protects human rights," and "both the city and private organizations should therefore highlight the universality of human rights."
    But the "universality of human rights" begins at home, at the local level. Yet NCKU officials argued in court, apparently unconcerned about what Thomas Jefferson called "a decent respect to the opinions of mankind," that "foreign" teachers were not protected by Taiwan's Teacher's Law. That was a violation of my human rights. It was also an insult to all Americans who defend the rights of Taiwanese both here and in our country.
    My illegal dismissal, which involved the circulation of a secret letter (the student who wrote that letter is currently employed as a teacher at NCKU), was also a violation of my human rights. The university's refusal to enforce a legal Ministry ruling was a violation of my human rights too.
    Finally, even after the university held (presumably bogus) appeal hearings, and then participated at Ministry appeal hearings in Taipei, it argued, after the Ministry's ruling favored me, that foreign teachers had no right to appeal in the first place! This is not merely a violation of my human rights, it's outright duplicity that would discredit a bushiban. Yet NCKU is a high-ranked university.
    Officials in Mainland China did not do this to me. Officials (and NCKU faculty) in Taiwan did this to me. Some of them may teach at, or have academic exchanges with, universities in Kaohsiung.
    Nor is this a matter of one or two officials. Numerous university committees at the department, college, and university levels, repeatedly passed my illegal dismissal, even after the Ministry ruling! If only a small number had taken a stand on behalf of human rights that dismissal would never have passed in the first place.
    That means a significant number of educated, or at least accredited, Taiwanese, many with American degrees, are either ignorant of, or indifferent to, human rights in Taiwan. Yet these same individuals were protected by human rights when matriculated or teaching in the US, and they presumably rely on American laws and human rights principles to protect their children there.
    One wonders how the Kaohsiung City Council would respond if an American university acted with similar duplicity against a Taiwanese professor or student; if a student from Kaohsiung passed his oral exams for an advanced degree at an American university and then, after passing, was told he had to retake his orals because Taiwanese are not protected by the same laws and rights that protect American students.
    The difference is most US news media would expose that case in days and the student would promptly obtain pro bono human rights assistance. The university would be quickly discredited, apologize, award the student his degree, and settle with appropriate damages.
    In Taiwan, despite numerous human rights groups here, I had to fight this case alone, with some valiant members of NCKU's Teacher's Union assisting me. Apparently, NCKU teachers exchanging ideas in the university coffee shop is more newsworthy than their ignoring human rights at their university, even as they "voice concern" over human rights violations in Mainland China. If that isn't the pot calling the kettle black I don't know what is.
    True, human rights in Mainland China are life and death issues. But that's the point. We must make sure they don't become life and death issues here. It's easier to raise our voices than to raise our dead. Let's exercise our freedoms before we lose them. It's better to fight for human rights when you're free than to fight for freedom when you're not.  Amnesty International understands that.
    Yet not a single NCKU official involved in this case has been punished. Presumably that will help deter similar violations in the future. Presumably that will help establish a tradition of human rights here.
    The university has still not acknowledged its human rights violations, a policy that will probably continue when the new president assumes office in February, 2011, since he has already started a pattern of not responding to my emails about the issue. This does not bode well for human rights here.
    In Mainland China, with no human rights guarantees, a citizen stood up to a tank. In Taiwan, protected by human rights laws, principles, and charters, as well as the support of the international community, no one will challenge a university lawyer or president based on those statutes and principles, not to mention common sense and common decency.
    If a person wins an appeal surely that appeal must be enforced. If an American professor teaches here surely he is protected by the same rights that protect your citizens, just as you're protected in America. Even if you don't believe in human rights, surely you believe in reciprocity.
    I am sure all of you are good people. But, as Edmund Burke famously said, all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.

    Sincerely,


    Richard de Canio
    formerly Associate Professor
    Department of Foreign Languages and Literature
    National Cheng Kung University
    Tainan, Taiwan

Fwd: An appeal to uphold international human rights protections for American professors in Taiwan

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Richard John <rdca25@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Oct 10, 2010 at 3:26 AM
Subject: An appeal to uphold international human rights protections for American professors in Taiwan
To: scholarsatrisk@nyu.edu
Cc: barbara.snyder@case.edu, coeinfo@u.washington.edu, chancellor@usg.edu, trustees@auburn.edu, jgogue@auburn.edu, drice@siu.edu, engineeradmin@tamu.edu, Dan_Jones@tamu-commerce.edu, hultin@poly.edu, Board.Trustees@uc.edu, president@uc.edu, dbennett@ucsd.edu, president@temple.edu, president@tamu.edu, president@po.utexas.edu, techpres@ttu.edu, presidents.office@sdsu.edu, Deb.Ackerman@asu.edu, kchriste@berkeley.edu, ua.president@alaska.edu, sybor@alaska.edu, presofc@colostate.edu, peacockke@appstate.edu, sga@uh.edu, info@twc.edu, glmathisen@central.uh.edu, rob.watts@usg.edu, trustees@purdue.edu, president@purdue.edu


To Scholars at Risk
New York, N.Y.

cc: American universities that may maintain academic exchanges with National Cheng Kung University in Tainan, Taiwan

10 October 2010

Dear Colleagues,

In view of your university's academic exchanges with National Cheng Kung University in Tainan, Taiwan, and as an American professor who taught at that university for 22 years, I think it imperative that you be informed of a history of human rights abuses committed by officials here (see attached jpeg file for partial evidence).

In 1999 I was illegally dismissed as an Associate Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature. A secret letter was circulated claiming, without proof, I failed a student eight years before!

Though that first dismissal was canceled on university appeal, I was told I had to appeal again, since, as a "foreigner," I was not protected by Taiwan's Teacher's Law. (These are the same professors who benefit from human rights when they matriculate or teach abroad.) In other words, the only benefit an American professor has if he wins an appeal is the right to appeal again!

Fortunately my dismissal was overturned by Taiwan's Ministry of Education in an appeal  ruling dated 8 January 2001. However, despite the fact that the university held appeal hearings of its own and attended those in Taipei, the university now claimed that as a "foreigner" I had no right to appeal in the first place.

For nearly two and a half years, despite eight warning letters from the Ministry of Education, the university refused to enforce that ruling. In the meantime it contested the ruling in the courts and, at an official meeting, threatened indefinite delays through court appeals if I didn't resign!

Even after the university complied, in May 2003, it continued to hold "hearings" on my case and imposed penalties, as if I never won an appeal. Those penalties were overturned by the Ministry of Education.

The university never compensated me for economic losses I incurred fighting the case and the courts never awarded punitive damages. In fact the university even contested my right to a retroactive salary!

To the present day, university officials have refused to compensate me (apart from the retroactive salary), apologize for human rights violations, punish officials involved in misconduct (including the circulation of a secret letter), or even admit human rights violations.

These professors and their children benefit from human rights protections abroad. These same professors espouse democracy when they present at international conferences or write journal articles condemning Mainland China.

Moreover, their university benefits from academic exchanges with American universities established on human rights principles. Yet despite a three-tiered appeal process, and numerous appeal hearings, not a single committee had the integrity to cancel a dismissal that involved so many human rights abuses that the Ministry of Education Appeal ruling bold-faced them in its ruling. Apparently their priority was to cover for officials involved in misconduct instead of effecting administrative remedy of that misconduct. In fact, these committees stubbornly repeated its dismissal action, often for the same reasons, even after the Ministry ruling warned of human rights violations involved in the first dismissal action.

Quite frankly, as an American citizen and an American professor, I don't think an American university should maintain academic exchanges with such a university. Presumably academic exchanges should be based on observance of human rights principles and mutual respect.

An American university that continues exchanges with such a university will compromise its own integrity as an academic institution once these issues are exposed. Moreover, taking a firm stand on behalf of these issues now will protect American (and other foreign) professors in Taiwan in the future.

I strongly urge you to do the right thing, however inconvenient it may be to do so. At the very least, American exchange universities can impose a probationary status on National Cheng Kung University until its human rights violations are remedied according to international principles of human rights, which Taiwan's president recently endorsed.

Sincerely,

Richard de Canio,
(Formerly) Associate Professor (retired)
Department of Foreign Languages and Literature
National Cheng Kung University
Tainan, Taiwan

Fwd: Academic exchanges with National Cheng Kung University

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Richard John <rdca25@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 9 Oct 2010 17:10:46 +0800
Subject: Academic exchanges with National Cheng Kung University
To: presofc@lamar.colostate.edu

Dr. Tony Frank
Office of the President
102 Administration Building
0100 Campus Delivery
Fort Collins, CO 80523-0100
(970) 491-6211
presofc@lamar.colostate.edu

Dear President Frank,

In 1999 I was illegally dismissed from National Cheng Kung University
(NCKU) in Tainan, Taiwan. Though I won on appeal in January 2001, the
university refused to honor that ruling for nearly two and a half
years, until May 2003 (see attached letters).
To effect its dismissal, NCKU claimed foreigners were not
protected by Taiwan's Teachers Law. After I won on appeal, the
university claimed foreigners had no right to appeal in the first
place! This, of course, not only violated legal principles of
transparency (estoppel, etc.), but elementary principles of decency
and fair play. One wonders how Taiwanese would react if one of their
students passed his graduate exams and was then told his pass was
invalid because he was a foreigner!
Other than confirming my reinstatement, Taiwan's courts neither
awarded me compensation nor imposed penalties on the university. The
university for its part has refused to effect remedy according to
international principles of human rights, which includes the right to
an apology, compensation, and appropriate penalties against culpable
officials regardless of their administrative status. To this day it
hasn't even acknowledged doing anything wrong!
I don't believe an American university should maintain academic
exchanges with a university that violates principles of human rights
and equity under the law. I therefore urgently request that your
university terminate exchanges with National Cheng Kung University
until proper remedy has been made in my case, based on human rights
principles accepted by all democracies.
For further information on this case, please consult my blog at
http://rdca45.blogspot.com/

Sincerely,

Richard de Canio.

Letter Regarding Human Rights to the Incoming President of National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan

Hwung-Hweng Hwung
President-Elect,
National Cheng Kung University

8 October 2010

Dear Dr. Hwung,

Congratulations on being elected next president of National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), a term that begins in February 2011. I sincerely wish you the best of luck in your administration.
    Unfortunately a university cannot be governed by luck. It must governed by administrative integrity, legal principles, and commitment to human rights principles and their enforcement. So far your university has shown a lack of concern in these areas, with no apparent attempt to remedy previous abuses or even acknowledge them.
    As you know, legal rights issues related to my illegal dismissal in 1999 have still not been resolved according to international principles of human rights accepted by all advanced democracies and endorsed recently by Taiwan's president. This is unacceptable, more so since NCKU maintains academic exchanges with numerous universities in my country and in other democracies abroad. Moreover, thousands of Taiwan citizens enjoy human rights protections when matriculated or teaching in those countries. Even if NCKU officials don't comprehend human rights principles they should be able to comprehend principles of reciprocity, on which Confucian ethics is founded.
    Quite frankly, I don't believe American universities (or other universities committed to human rights) should maintain academic exchanges with a university that egregiously violated the human rights of a professor and, moreover, has shown no attempt to remedy those violations or issue a formal apology for them. In view of this, I will use all legal options to effect a termination of American exchanges with your university.
     I will continue to pursue resolution of this case until it is settled according to international principles shared by all advanced democracies and academic institutions, regardless whether this is convenient to NCKU officials.

     Sincerely,

     Richard de Canio.