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.
No comments:
Post a Comment