The Hypocrisy And The Audacity (Of Taiwan's Government)

  The Taiwan government's hypocrisy and double standards on the law, due process and human rights was on full display earlier this month in a transnational case involving a Taiwanese diplomat based in the U.S. accused of abusing her domestic worker and violating human trafficking laws among other things. 

  Apparently, the Taiwan government believes that Taiwan is the only place in the world where  everything is "done according to the law" and no one should question or challenge the actions and decisions of the authorities and judiciary. As well, in it's reaction to the arrest and detention of the diplomat, the Taiwan government showed it's nearly complete disregard for the issue of others' human rights, instead playing it's very popular "sovereignty card", whining incessantly that the case somehow involved China and disregard for Taiwan's sovereignty . 

  And in a farcical attempt to try and help Liu escape U.S. due process and law, the Taiwan government insisted for days that she was protected by diplomatic immunity in part because her alleged criminal misconduct was performed while on official duty. In perhaps the ultimate act of hypocrisy, Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs even protested that diplomat Liu's "human rights were violated" in her arrest. What sheer audacity!

  No one in Taiwan's government, certainly no one in the judiciary, not even any of my lawyers from the Legal Aid Farce concerned themselves with my human rights as they were continually violated by undue process and selective application of or disregard for various laws and regulations. Trying to point out the various violations of my legal and human rights was like speaking in a foreign language to these people. Some even took the attitude that just by the mere existence of my case in the court and my having a lawyer provided by the LAF my legal and human rights were being safeguarded and protected. What a crock! Human rights are little more than empty words and a HUGE sham perpetuated by successive governments on the island. 

  Read this editorial for some interesting insight from the Taiwanese author on the Liu case and how it exposes the hypocrisy and truth of human rights in Taiwan: Human Rights Treated As a Slogan

  Here are a few of the many stories I came across as I followed developments in Liu's arrest and subsequent guilty plea:

Taiwan Diplomat in Kansas USA Arrested by FBI for Abusing Philippine Housekeeper, Embarrassing President Ma's Government 

Talk of The Day -- Taiwan-U.S. ties Tested by Diplomat's Arrest 

Details of Envoy’s US Arrest Emerge 

Taiwanese Diplomat May Wait in Prison for Months

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 
 

Putting a Price on Life and Human Rights in Taiwan

  I came across a very enlightening editorial in the Nov. 7 Taipei Times newspaper about the Taiwanese judiciary's recent ruling that the mother of a wrongly convicted and executed young serviceman would receive $3.4 million in compensation for the loss of her son. While highlighting several troubling aspects of this case, author Lin Feng-jeng aptly points out the Taiwanese judiciary's and government's penchant for claiming that everything they do is "done according to the law." 
  According to the faulty logic of this oft-used excuse in Taiwan, the young man's confession under torture and duress, his execution, the lack of punishment for those guilty of violating his human and legal rights and for orchestrating his conviction and execution, were all handled "according to the law." 
  In my case, I was also told numerous times by the judge, prosecutor's and staff at the prosecutor's office, and even by some lawyers, that everything about my case was being handled "according to the law." In fact, my last lawyer, in a fit of anger while we were arguing about how poorly my case was being handled by the court and how much my legal and human rights were being violated, told me point-blank that "The truth didn't matter." He went on to explain that in Taiwan's courts, what judges care about is "who has the evidence" that the judge deems relevant according to his own thinking. Put simply, the parties in court are at the whims, fancies and biases of the particular judge, and whoever is lucky enough to be in the judge's favor will win the case!
  Read the editorial for more about how the law, judiciary and government handle legal and human rights in Taiwan:  Vote For a Legal System That Is Just

Not Even Marriage & Family Escape Injustice in Taiwan

  In yet another sterling example of how Taiwan's authorities so often disregard foreigners' legal rights and how decisions are made in a vacuum - lacking common sense, decency, compassion or adherence to international principles of human rights - here is a September 2011 story from the island's press about scores of international marriages in Taiwan blighted by the heavy-handed and callous treatment of the foreign spouses by the National Immigration Agency and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Quite often in matters involving foreigners, the authority's (mis)handling of their cases involves elements of politics as much as institutional and/or personal bias against non-Taiwanese.

Dealing with a misguided MOFA 

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.