Letter to Humanistic Education Foundation
2/19/2004 8:55 PM
Subject: Regarding rights violations at National Cheng Kung
University
To: tainan@hef.org.tw
Humanistic Education Foundation
Tainan, Taiwan
19 February 2004
Dear Humanistic Education Foundation:
In a letter dated 8 January 2001, the Ministry of Education Appeals
Committee canceled my dismissal at National Cheng Kung University in
Tainan. The university president, Kao Chiang defied that ruling and
eight Ministry letters for more than two years.
Instead, the university held “hearings” on accusations rejected in
the Ministry ruling. The university lawyer used tax-paid money to
contest the Ministry ruling in court, saying (after the ruling favored
me) that foreigners had no right to appeal. (This lawsuit, which cost
the university millions of dollars in back pay, could have funded dozens
of scholarships for needy students.) Meanwhile university officials
warned me to quit the university or the administration would contest the
Ministry ruling for as long as possible.
Forced to comply with the Ministry ruling to issue teaching
contracts, officials prevented other benefits of that ruling. Promptly,
as if to show contempt for the Ministry ruling, a College Review
committee approved accusations rejected in that ruling and, as
punishment, denied me increments and promotion for six years.
Only recently, Professor Kao publicly claimed it was “reasonable” I
be denied teaching pay the years of my illegal dismissal. Yet an appeal
ruling insures full compensation to the favored party.
President Kao's office has yet to issue an apology for human rights
abuses,
including the use of secret and unproved accusations to insure my
dismissal in 1999. The student who wrote a letter secretly circulated
at dismissal hearings has not been punished, although now a graduate
student and teacher at our university.
These are violations of moral principles as well as law. Taiwan is
a democracy, yet the university
denies the Teacher’s Law protects foreigners. The university accepted
my appeal but claimed, after I won, that foreigners have no right to
appeal. The university attended the Ministry hearing but, after I won,
defied its ruling.
This case is now in its fifth year. Administrative “remedy” that
continues this long is laughable and mocks the word “remedy.”
Who will seek remedy knowing it will last years? But if there is no
remedy there is no hope, either for teachers or for education in Taiwan.
No respectable university should allow abuses listed here. Just
recently our College Review Committee ignored a University Appeals
ruling, as if neither the Ministry nor its own University Appeals
Committee had legal force.
Is this a democracy? Is Taiwan a government of laws? Can school
officials say what a law means, when to obey a
law, and which laws to use?
A committee is not above the law but subject to the law, in its
plain sense. The rights of a university do not include the right to
interpret laws or defy them, any more than the rights of a citizen allow
this.
To appear lawful, university officials quote lawyers instead of
laws. But democracy is a government of laws, not lawyers. Yet an
official who defied a Ministry ruling for more than two years goes
unpunished because (he says) a lawyer “interpreted” the law to mean what
the university wanted it to mean.
If allowed, all citizens can do the same thing. This way there'll
be laws, but no law.
In law, a final ruling prevents further action on issues already
decided. Accusations rejected on appeal cannot be revived, or final
appeals are useless, or, worse, a form of harassment.
Taiwan is a democracy. Its citizens receive legal protections when
they live in lawful countries. It is a recognized principle of law
that a final appeal ruling insures final settlement of the accusations,
apology, compensation, and remedy. Yet accusations rejected in the
Ministry ruling have been revived, I have received no just compensation
or apology
In the meantime, officials should be punished for misconduct, even
if they have transferred to another university, as two have. I expect
the student who wrote a secret spiteful letter to be punished. I
deserve full compensation and a formal apology from the university. The
settlement should be enforced, as Taiwan law requires.
Sincerely,
Professor Richard de Canio
Department of Foreign Languages and Literature
National Cheng Kung University
Tainan, Taiwan
(06) 237 8626
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