Letter to Taiwan Minstry of Education

Ministry of Education
Dr. Huang J.T.
Minister of Education

22 February, 2002

Dear Minister Huang,

As a final message to the Ministry of Education, I feel compelled to say
that if the American government is willing to commit itself to do "whatever
it takes" to defend Taiwan, then it's not asking too much for the Taiwan
government to do "whatever it takes" to defend the rights and dignity of an
American citizen in Taiwan.
The fact that this case has already lasted many years is in itself a
scandal. The abuses committed by university officials in this case were not
minor, but major; and they were repeatedly committed, as if, as a
representative from the Ministry of Education claimed, "teachers in Taiwan
are above the laws." If teachers in Taiwan are above the laws, then why
have laws, or pretend to have them?
Please show me any other country in the world, with similar claims to
being a lawful society, where university officials can plan a dismissal
action based on secret letters, malicious rumors, and unproved accusations,
and convince a review committee of ALL its members (I think the number was
eighteen) to pass it. I am confident American school children of ten years
old, tutored in democratic principles, would not have passed that dismissal
action in a simulated case in a school classroom.
So we’re talking about either serious malicious misconduct or grievous
official negligence. (And NCKU officials repeatedly tell me that they don’t
know about the laws or care about them! At least one chairman told me this
and one university president.)
I respectfully advise that the Ministry of Education commence a
"hands-on" policy with the universities under its jurisdiction. Indeed, the
history of lax sanctions against negligent officials at National Cheng Kung
University doubtless led to an increasing sense of arrogance, defiance, and
assertion of independence, not only from Ministry regulations but from moral
principles, leading to the crisis the Ministry finds itself in this very
day.
I have documented proof of complaints against university officials that
go back about ten years and the Ministry of Education has historically
responded indifferently to these complaints, including forged (unaccredited)
student evaluations, lax promotional criteria, and even, from what I’ve been
told, forged signatures in order to open up a Research Institute at National
Cheng Kung University. (From what I’ve been told, several professors
complained personally to the Ministry of Education about this but the
Ministry did nothing.) In response to this very complaint, an official at
your Ministry replied, "teachers are considered above the laws in Taiwan."
(I have a witness to this conversation, if it comes to that.)
The Ministry of Education should learn from this case and more
effectively control its universities, especially National Cheng Kung
University. Indeed, a former president of this university told me, in
personal dialogue, that the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature
was not initially an official department, and by the time it became one it
had developed "a lot of bad habits." As the present situation demonstrates,
those "bad habits" have yet to be remedied, instead infecting more organs of
government.
I myself have had previous problems with a former chairman of that
department, Ren Shyh-jong, who used unaccredited student evaluations to
discredit me in 1994. Professor Ren not only was never punished, but last
semester was appointed Dean of Academic Affairs!
Recently, I filed a formal complaint, in Chinese, against a National
Cheng Kung University student who wrote a secret, malicious, and libelous
letter against me in 1999, apparently as part of the university’s plan to
dismiss me. (Dean Tu Yung-Ching, then Dean of Academic Affairs, accepted
this secret letter. He himself has never been punished for his
misconduct.) Professor Ker, currently Dean of Student Affairs, has yet to
formally respond to my complaint or even show any sign that she has
investigated it. As a citizen of a democracy, the events related here
disgust me.
The question of how officials at National Cheng Kung University,
including a president appointed by the Ministry of Education, can face down
the same Ministry that regulates them and show scorn for both law and legal
principles, is, as a foreigner, quite beyond my understanding or even
belief. But what has happened over the last several years has totally
destroyed illusions I may have had about Taiwan laws, justice, democracy, or
the famous Confucian principle of reciprocity.
Furthermore, based on my own personal experience, most officials at
National Cheng Kung University seem to me to be without any sense of moral
responsibility, honor, law, justice, or even shame. They do what they must
do, not to enforce laws and moral principles, not to protect faculty and
students, but to protect themselves. (And this is at tax-payers’ expense!)
These may not be your values. But if you do not endorse those values, I
respectfully suggest you combat them. For in Law, silence is construed as a
sign of consent.

Sincerely,

Professor Richard de Canio.
(06) 237 8626

Letter to Taiwan Ministry of Education

22 February, 2002

Dear Minister Huang,

I wish to make it clear that the impending lawsuit against me by National
Cheng Kung University is unacceptable. It is clearly a violation of my
human rights in Taiwan.
The Taiwan government is, in effect, tolerating abuse by its own public
officials in order to challenge legal benefits that its own government
agency, the Ministry of Education, has already awarded me in a legally
sanctioned appeal process. To allow such a civil action against me is not
only an abuse of public power and tax-paid money (presumably tolerated by
Taiwan’s government), but it would subject me to both public ridicule and
contempt.
In a lawful society, the awards of a legally sanctioned appeal process
can not, under any circumstances, be nullified, nor its benefits delayed. I
have already tolerated abuses of my rights in Taiwan long enough.
And I would like to state that the Ministry of Education has shown
little respect, regard, or sympathy for me during that time. I have yet to
receive a personal phone call from any Minister of Education to show
personal concern for my situation or a sense of personal responsibility for
the lack of legal protections in my case. Nobody from the Ministry of
Education offered to take care of my visa problems during this long period.
Nobody from the Ministry of Education offered to indemnify my medical
expenses while I was illegally deprived of my medical insurance.
On the other hand, the American government, attempting to resolve a
foreign child custody case, directly supported the father of Elian Gonzalez,
even though he was from an "enemy country," granting him an indefinite visa,
a government residence, and all amenities, finally resolving the case, on
his behalf, by force. Conversely, officials from the Ministry of Education
merely encouraged me to file a personal lawsuit against the university in
order to effect compliance with the Ministry’s ruling! This not only
undermines the pretense of democracy in Taiwan, but of law itself.
The American government is spending millions of US dollars in defense
of Taiwan, at least partly because Taiwan espouses democratic principles.
The least Taiwan can do is to invest a few thousand NT dollars in defense of
American citizens in Taiwan based on those same democratic principles.
If there is law in Taiwan it seems clear to me what must be done. The
president of National Cheng Kung University, who has been in defiance of the
Ministry ruling, and who continues to tolerate abuses of power at his
university, must be dismissed as president. Legal counsel responsible for
advising such abuses of power and obstruction of justice should also be
punished.
This is what democracy means. Democracy does not mean, as one
representative from the Ministry of Education said, that, in Taiwan,
"teachers are above the law." (I have a Taiwan witness to this statement.)
I will not passively accept the university’s impending lawsuit and the
legal insult against my rights, honor, and dignity as an American citizen in
Taiwan. I am requesting that the Ministry of Education immediately notify
National Cheng Kung University officials that the impending lawsuit against
me is an abuse of power and of tax-paid money, as well as of my rights as an
American citizen in Taiwan, and that their lawsuit must be dismissed within
one working day. The Taiwan government must then effect full closure of
this case within a few days.
As far as I am concerned, I have shown more than human patience, and
even some sympathy, in respect of Taiwan’s uncertain democracy. But my
toleration is at an end. Unless I hear a definite response to this fax by
the end of the day, I will make full appeal to officials at the highest
levels of the American government as well as to other branches of the Taiwan
government.