The Ministry of Education
Taipei, Taiwan
cc: Scholars at Risk
Formosa Foundation
Taiwan "human rights" groups
Center for Taiwan International Relations
US Taiwan Caucus
North America Taiwanese Professors' Association (NATPA)
American Universities, etc.
5 July 2011
Please allow me to inform those concerned about human rights, and, specifically, human rights in Taiwan, that, over thirteen years, I have tried everything possible to resolve human rights issues at National Cheng Kung University in Tainan, Taiwan, to no avail.
I have respectfully contacted every agency in Taiwan. I have contacted Taiwan presidents and vice-presidents. I have contacted the (now defunct?) Human Rights Commission. I have contacted the Control Yuan and petitioned that "prestigious" agency personally in Taipei, to no avail. I have sent repeated postal and electronic mails to Taiwan presidents, premiers, human rights groups, legal aid groups, and Taiwan's Department of Higher Education, to no avail.
I have also sent numerous letters to the three major English-language newspapers in Taiwan, including the China Post, Taipei Times, and Taiwan News to no avail. Meanwhile they condemn human rights abuses in Mainland China.
To my knowledge, not a single letter of mine about this case has been published. The single reply I received, about a month ago, said the editor was awaiting "further developments" in a case that has lasted thirteen years. I'm not sure what "further developments" means, unless it's Sean Connery marching for Taiwan independence.
The Ministry of Education, presumably an oversight agency of Taiwan's public universities, has so far been unable to resolve this issue. Yet the Ministry itself has fully documented abuses in its ruling of 2001, which canceled my dismissal (attached). Moreover, NCKU defied that ruling for nearly two and a half years.
In the meantime the Ministry sent ten warning letters, in which it spelled out human rights abuses (attached). But the MOE has not punished a single university official. In fact the university president who defied the MOE ruling was afterwards approved for a second three-year term.
The courts awarded no punitive damages. But my academic career was interrupted for at least four years and libelous accusations about me were circulated at university hearings. As recently as last year (2010), students assured me those accusations were current at the university (attached).
But no Taiwan court found a single university official liable. The courts didn't even award compensation for expenses incurred by my dismissal.
Are these deterrent rulings? Is this the way to insure a "strong democracy," based on law and legal rights principles? If a child is kidnapped will a Taiwan court merely enforce the return of the child without making exemplary punitive, deterrent, and compensatory rulings?
To add insult to injury, the university president and his Secretary-General recently posted on the official NCKU web page an "explanation" of the illegal dismissal as if no laws were violated, even suggesting I was "involved" in misconduct that justified dismissal. Yet the Secretary-General himself contested the dismissal as illegal before he became Secretary-General! Are right and wrong opportunistic concepts in Taiwan instead of fundamental principles of justice?
NCKU faculty have not raised their voices in protest. Many matriculated at universities in democracies abroad where they enjoyed human rights protections.
If my case is typical, Taiwan is not a "strong democracy" but a "virtual democracy." Rights are virtually guaranteed but not actually enforced.
In a chimerical democracy, citizens are free to file formal complaints, while government agencies are free to ignore them. With this chimerical or virtual freedom, citizens are not motivated to fight for a more tangible freedom.
Ironically, under the coercive government of Mainland China, citizens stand up to tanks. Under the permissive government of Taiwan, citizens won't stand up to a university administration.
With no freedom of the press in Mainland China, citizens use all means to expose human rights abuses. But the "free press" in Taiwan will not expose this case, looking for "further developments." How many similar abuses are there that haven't been exposed?
Based on the history of human rights abuses at National Cheng Kung University, and the Ministry of Education's refusal to enforce remedy of those abuses, I must petition American universities to respond appropriately and terminate academic exchanges with Taiwan universities.
Apart from the right of an American citizen to be protected under Taiwan law, if human rights are not enforced how can academic standards be assured? No professor will protest abuses at a university and risk dismissal with no tangible means of remedy or compensation, as happened in my case.
In the meantime, I am asking the Ministry of Education one more time to insure immediate and formal remedy of this long-standing case at National Cheng Kung University. Pending this, I have other legal and petitionary options available, and I intend to use them.
Sincerely,
Richard de Canio
formerly Associate Professor
Department of Foreign Languages and Literature
National Cheng Kung University
Tainan, Taiwan
For those who wish to explore this case further, please consult my blog at http://rdca45b.blogspot.com/
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