Getting Back to Another Case of Injustice & Human Rights Abuse In Taiwan

  In my blog post One of Many Cases of Legal and Human Rights Abuses in Taiwan, I introduced the story of Dr. Richard de Canio, formerly an associate professor in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature at National Cheng Kung University in Tainan, Taiwan. Recently I discovered he has a mirror blog which is more up-to-date, with a post as recently as August 22, 2011. 

  Reading his Summary History of Human Rights Abuses at National Cheng Kung University fills me with an eery sense of deja vu. Several incidents he recalls of his nightmare at NCKU read like exact or near-exact carbon copies of what happened to me at the nursing university. He writes of "bogus accusations" that were kept hidden until after dismissal proceedings had begun, student evaluations used to start a dismissal action against him, secret letters & documents circulated against him, refusals by the administration or investigation committees to show relevant documents to the accused, 'smoke-and-mirrors' appeal processes designed to frustrate the appellant and protect the wrongdoers at all costs, and on and on. It's almost as if universities in Taiwan have a "playbook" which they follow when dealing with cases like mine and Dr. de Canio's!

  Here is an excerpt from the beginning of his much-longer Summary History:

SUMMARY HISTORY OF HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES AT NATIONAL CHENG KUNG UNIVERSITY

Despite being a high-ranked university in Taiwan, with numerous academic exchanges abroad, such as with Purdue University in the US, National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) has a long history of human rights violations without channels of remedy.

In 1994 bogus student evaluations were used to start a dismissal action against me in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature (FLLD). This was overturned by a single vote.

Despite the impropriety of using unsigned student evaluations the department chair was never punished, encouraging further violations.

Predictably, in 1999 I was again dismissed. The documents related to that dismissal are included on this blog.

Bogus accusations were used. These were never investigated. I did not learn of them until after the first dismissal hearing!

When these accusations were challenged by members of NCKU's Teachers Union, a secret letter was solicited and circulated at "review" and "appeal" hearings to insure my dimissal.

I never saw the letter. At one "hearing," three times I asked the chair to inform me of the letter's contents. He stared silently each time. A committee member sympathetically interjected a summary of the letter.

I saw the letter years later when I sued the student who wrote it. She claimed, without proof, I failed her unfairly eight years before.

Neither the courts nor the university punished the student. In fact she received a Master's and Doctorate at the university. Her committee was made up almost entirely of faculty members who defended her letter, though she had no proof except her claim, made her claim in secret, and eight years after the disputed grade. She has a part-time position teaching at the university, a role model for the next generation of college graduates and citizens, shaping the future of Taiwan democracy.

The university's "appeal" process was bogus, a charade to delay the case, to outlast me or my visa. Committee members closed ranks to protect colleagues involved in misconduct rather than protect the appellant, as was their duty. The purpose of "oversight" committees is lost if those committees cover up mistakes instead of correcting them.

In December 1999 the university canceled my dismissal. But it argued foreigners were not protected by Taiwan's Teachers Law, so returned the case to the department as a hiring rather than a dismissal action.
In NCKU "Newspeak" an appeal cannot favor a foreigner, though foreigners can appeal. After insidious cycles of "review" and "appeal," I appealed to the Ministry of Education.

University officials attended Ministry appeal hearings in Taipei, but after it lost the Ministry ruling, dated 8 January 2001, the university claimed foreigners had no right to appeal and refused to enforce the ruling. Instead it filed a lawsuit to contest my employment.