Foreigners in Taiwan: Beneath the Law and Human Rights

  For white-collar professionals like myself, Taiwan is already a very scary place when it comes to matters of Rule of Law, due process, human rights and human dignity when attempting to seek justice as a victim of a crime or defend oneself from false allegations perpetrated by a Taiwanese. For migrant workers such as domestic helpers and assemblers in factories, many in reality treated as "slaves", Taiwan's authorities and the judiciary are even harsher in denying even the most basic of legal and human rights to those accused of wrongdoing or who are merely witnesses detained to aid in an investigation. 
  What has happened in my 4-year legal and human rights nightmare is symptomatic of a much wider and pervasive problem with the treatment of all levels of foreigners who toil in the island's schools as teachers, in various business, academic and social welfare entities, and in the homes and factories throughout Taiwan.
  I'll write more in-depth about this in a later post. For now, here are two illuminating articles on just how Taiwan's authorities and judiciary continually violate the legal and human rights of those working in Taiwan:


Foreigners Being Unfairly Detained, Rights Groups Say

Foreigners Have Human Rights Too

02/09/12 Update: I've started a new blog entitled Giving Up a Life's Worth of Music, Movies and More For My Kids' Future
 

Time For Other Things in Life + Taiwan's High Court

   It's been a month since my previous post. I hadn't started out to take this much time off from blogging, but as the days passed without writing, then a week, and another week, I found it was much-needed time off to focus my attention on some other things and to spend more time enjoying some activities with colleagues, relaxing with some movies and old TV shows in my apartment, and on Oct. 15 celebrating birthday #49 thanks to the thoughtfulness of my colleagues, staff and many friends old and new across the world. It was also a good occasion to reflect a bit on how far I've come since the darkest days of 2007, where I am now, and where I'm going from here on in. 

  Just prior to this month-long hiatus from blogging, I got some not-so-surprising news from the Taiwan High Court about the appeal filed by my friend. As I had expected, the High Court spun some flimsy reasons for rejecting the appeal - the latest effort by Taiwan's judiciary to thwart a foreigner's lawful due process. 

  According to my Taiwanese friend who filed the appeal, these are the central reasons given by the High Court for rejecting the appeal:

1. My friend can't appeal on my behalf because she is not a lawyer (Note: This is contradictory to what the court said to my friend before she filed the appeal. The court and my previous lawyer said the appeal didn't have to be made by a lawyer. My friend COULD file the appeal on my behalf with a Power of Attorney filed by me).
2. My friend can't appeal on my behalf because she is not my spouse or relative (Note: This point was never raised by my former lawyer or the High Court before and...What law in Taiwan says an appeal can only be made by a spouse or relative? How many foreigners in Taiwan have a Taiwanese relative or spouse to file an appeal for them?
3. The person filing the appeal should be knowledgeable about relevant laws and procedures.
4. If I can't appear in court myself, I must have somebody the judge would approve to appear on my behalf. The court rejected my friend as my representative.

    Here is the court's decision:

02/09/12 Update: I've started a new blog entitled Giving Up a Life's Worth of Music, Movies and More For My Kids' Future

The Root of Taiwan's Judicial Evils

  There are SO MANY things wrong with the judiciary in Taiwan. Perhaps the root of the most serious problems lies in the misnomer of Taiwan’s judges and prosecutors being “independent.” In reality, they are judicial czars who are above and beyond the law, possessing the absolute power to interpret, bend, manipulate and subvert the law at will, accountable to no one and without any meaningful oversight or objective evaluation system to ensure they are performing their duties correctly and in line with the rule of law and due process.
  To read more about the problems of Taiwan's inept, ineffective and corrupt judiciary, read my post What's Wrong With Justice in Taiwan? on my other blog The 21st Century 'White Terror': Injustice & Human Rights Abuses by Taiwan's Government & Judiciary
  You can also read A Follow-Up to “Does Taiwan genuinely respect plurality?, a follow-up to Taiwanese professor Hsia Hsiao-chuan's August 4 editorial “Does Taiwan genuinely respect plurality?”  In his editorial, Hsia dispels the notion of many Taiwanese that there is no prejudice or discrimination in Taiwan. Deep-rooted stereotypes and ill-treatment of migrants, expats and other sorts of foreigners in Taiwan abound as in many other parts of the world, albeit usually in more subtle and cleverly cloaked guises.

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.

The First Response...conclusion

  What made this nightmare all the more shocking and surprising was that for more than three of the four years I taught at the nursing university things were fine and I enjoyed my work, the students and my working relationship with colleagues and staff at the school was very good. To say that the false sex harassment accusation and underhanded attempts to snatch my job from under me came out of nowhere doesn't adequately describe the magnitude of how this hit me. Some of the same people who I had worked for and with, students who I had dedicated myself to teaching and helping, had betrayed me and cooperated in a very cowardly and ugly conspiracy to try and rid the school of the last foreign teacher standing in the way of the school's path to university status...as well as certain students' desperation to no longer have to face the difficulty of passing an English class taught by a non-Taiwanese instructor.

  Of course, it was not always this way. Here is the concluding part of The First Response:

On the positive side, many of these same students have also shown measurable improvement – speaking more English in class, higher test scores, etc - in their English skills no matter how low they were at the beginning.

I have an earnest and genuine passion and commitment to helping these students learn, grow and improve themselves. Is it right that the very people in high places of my institution should attack and stifle this passion and commitment and my right to be the best teacher I can through sound principles of teaching and widely acknowledged language learning methods? I wasn’t aware that institutions are eager to punish earnest, challenging, good teachers while rewarding dispassionate, fair or easy teachers with continued employment…and rewarding misbehavior and whining by lazy students by encouraging such activity.

How can any school call itself an institution of “higher learning”, and fulfill it’s mandatory academic requirements for English education, when it eliminates all (3 of) the native English instructors for a faculty of all Taiwanese teachers because they can do paperwork in Chinese? It would be like a college or university in America only employing American non-native speakers of Chinese to teach all levels of Chinese courses – no native Chinese faculty!

I have been fortunate too over the years to have many students and classes who appreciated my earnest, communicative teaching…students who understand and value the privilege and opportunity they have for higher education…and learning more accurately about the language and culture of my country. For those who care about the quality of their education, their positive comments and feedback have validated what I’m doing and made teaching in Taiwan very worthwhile.

In conclusion, throughout both of these unfair dilemmas I am facing, there have been some serious violations of my rights as a teacher and as a public employee:

1.   In the three years I’ve been teaching at the National Taipei College of Nursing, I have never had any formal evaluation of my teaching by anyone at the college nor any written warning of problems or deficiencies in my teaching.

2.   My current contract is due to expire on July 31, 2007, and to date I have not received any written notification that I will not be extended a new contract. By law, the college is required to either present me a new contract or notify me of non-renewal at least 60 days before the current contract expires.

3.   I heard about the student accusation from a college employee who should not have known about this issue. The employee also heard it from another employee and told me that the student’s accusation has been spreading around the college among students, faculty and staff…all of this a violation of my privacy rights concerning such an allegation.

4.  To date, I have not received any written notice of the student’s accusation against me.

5. On June 15, a college employee informed me that she was told the nursing college would hold a hearing about the student’s accusation…but to date I also have not received any written notice requesting my appearance for any hearing.

Although these crises are seemingly unconnected events, it’s a very strange coincidence the timing and the same people involved, and suspicious how the school has aligned these against me. In essence, what this all comes down to is that both some students and some administrators are trying to find a way to circumvent the norms of education and the law to make it easy for the students to get around the MOE’s English requirements so they will stop complaining and can graduate on time. Many students hope they can sit idly in class or fool around for 18 weeks and then magically pass the class. Students are supposed to be responsible and accountable for their part in learning and progressing…to earn whatever grade they get. If they don’t take responsibility for earning what they get now, when will they? What kind of nurses, employees, people will they be in the future?

Curtis W. Diggs Jr.

Threats & Blackmail: The Favored Weapon of Alice and Other Students in Taiwan

  It is not uncommon in Taiwan for students to threaten and blackmail a school's administration to get their way. I witnessed or heard about this bizarre and frightful situation at more than one school I taught at. In most cases, the student or students got most, if not all, they sought.

  During the first months of my nightmare situation with the nursing university, one of my colleagues confided in me that she was told Alice had also threatened the school. She told the school that if they did not take action on her accusation against me, and if they didn't reverse my contract renewal, that she would go to the media and report her allegation and accuse the school of not protecting her. 

  Later, in an email to me in February 2008, the same colleague reminded me of Alice's threat while explaining a then-current problem with other students who were threatening to go public with unflattering allegations in order to scare off students considering attending the school.

  Here's the part of her email discussing both threats:

Dr. Tsay was not present, but the vice chairperson of nursing department. She continued to say that these 'victim' students threatened the college if this matter cannot be solved with satisfaction, they are going to tell the perspective (sic) students of NTCN who are high school fellows of these 'victim' students that NTCN is a bad school and they'd better not come to study.  Wow!  It sounds familliar.  Do you remember that Alice Yang said the same thing that "if the mass media or legislators know about this harrassment, our college will not have the chance to upgrade..."  NTCN is afraid of being threatened.

The First Response...continued

  This nightmare wasn't the result of just one factor. Several factors were at play near the same time that culminated in something of a "perfect storm" of factions seeking my ouster and desperation to reverse my contract renewal which had already been approved.

 As you'll see in this second part of my response to Alice's accusation and the complaints about my teaching, some of my Taiwanese teaching colleagues and school administrators had also been doing their own dirty work to build support for no more native English-speaking teachers at the school. 

  Since my time there ended, in the 4 years since there have been NO MORE foreign teachers employed at this so-called university. In many places this would be treated as blatant discrimination and racism, but in the world of Taiwan this kind of practice is very much the norm when it comes to treatment of foreign nationals working and living there. Can you imagine a university in the U.S. getting rid of all its native Chinese-speaking teachers and only employing Americans to teach Chinese?   

  Continuing my letter:

I’m caught in the grips of three people with discriminatory and unfairly negative attitudes toward me and my teaching:

1.   My senior colleague, Mr. Paul Liu, who openly voices his racist attitude toward foreign teachers and his opinion that we are of no use – and it’s “unfair” in his words – because we are not able to do Chinese administrative paperwork related to some MOE projects. He has never formally spoken to me or given me anything in writing about student evaluations of my classes. On one occasion, though, he did informally comment in our office that my student evaluations were “much better” than his and that his students gave him low evaluations.

2.   The head of the nursing department, Dr. Tsay, who in front of me talks a nice, friendly,  game but behind my back is only concerned that her nursing students don’t have any trouble passing English (i.e. every student should pass regardless of their grade or ability). She has never spoken to me about any student feedback or evaluations about my class.

3.   The college president who also has voiced her opinion that the school doesn’t need any native English-speaking teachers because we can not do Chinese paperwork, and who displays the same attitude as Dr. Tsay that it’s not important the students really earn their pass in English, or that they should be prepared to pass the standardized English test, just find the easiest way for the students to pass the MOE English requirements to graduate NTCN. She also has never spoken to me about students’ feedback or evaluations in my course.

  Some of the same students who are complaining about my class are the same ones who come in 10, 15, 20, 30 minutes late…even skip the first hour of class or the whole class (2 hours) altogether and show up for the second class…or show up for the first class and skip the second one. These are the same students who don’t bring their books to class, don’t bring paper or a notebook, who sometimes or rarely do their homework. Who are these kind of lazy, unmotivated, whining students to criticize my teaching? These are the same students who while I am spending some time to lecture them, they’re displaying their lack of respect and attention by talking in Chinese, putting on makeup, talking on their cell phones, eating, etc. They are very poor examples of good students…and they certainly don’t know anything about teaching let alone learning. Who are they to be the sole judges of how I should teach?

  I’m always prepared for class and my method & philosophy of teaching is to facilitate the students learning through minimal lecturing and maximum involvement in learning activities…DOING not just listening to me talk. Through this method, I am also teaching the students how to do independent, self-learning which is crucial to them really being able to improve and sustain the improvement over time…not just to pass a test. I have exposed them to numerous sources on the internet for learning & practicing…not only English but also reading lots of useful and interesting content for their general knowledge and even professional knowledge.

  I’m highly insulted and more than disappointed that a so-called institution of higher learning, with administrators running around with advanced degrees, so-called Phds,  evidently have forgotten, didn’t learn, or don’t care about the fundamentals of teaching and learning. They care little about the means of educating & improving our younger generations, of preparing them adequately for the real world after school…just the ends of getting them out of the school. I am not only trying to teach these young – and sometimes older – students English, but also helping ready them for some things they will face in their lives and work that are not in the text books…to be responsible, diligent, honest and confident in all that they do.