Lai Ching-te Should Take to Heart What Wu Maw-kuen Has Taught the Tsai Gov’t

  Lai Ching-te Should Take to Heart What Wu Maw-kuen Has Taught the Tsai Gov’t

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

May 31, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

Kuan Chung-ming, president-elect of National Taiwan University (NTU), was elected nearly five months ago and is yet unable to take office. The DPP government has lost two education ministers in not even one and a half months. We will soon see subsequently the things to be buried alongside the two ministers, university autonomy, academic freedom, education value, higher education development, competition for talent, academic exchanges, and the rule of law under democracy. As to the nose-diving of the Tsai government's prestige and popularity, the drain of the people’s trust, Wu Maw-kuen’s sudden assumption of the office and his disgraceful stepping down, they also played the role of the last straw. All these are lessons in the negative that Wu Maw-kuen has taught the DPP!

The Kuan Chung-ming case has dragged on for nearly five months; the plucking is only half finished. People cannot but lament with a sigh that the “plucking Kuan” has become a cruel game that the DPP government used to torture itself, and at the same time torture the entire society. The Tsai government indulged in both masochism and sadism, creating a situation where everybody loses. In fact, as long as we let go of the Blue-Green bigotry, giving some room for university autonomy, and setting free Taiwan’s education, we will easily find for ourselves a way out. Now, with the second change of education ministers, it is high time that we extricated ourselves from the predicament.

Lai Ching-te must remember that Wu Maw-kuen used himself as negative teaching material, teaching the DPP government the following: Don’t use Blue/Green reunification/Taiwan independence as a yardstick for selecting education ministers; nor use university presidents as a political monopoly. Don’t not use ideology for education; nor extend political black hands into campuses. Don’t use the lure of authority and prestige to ruin talent; nor use the threat of power to trample on education. The Tsai government must remember to rule with humility, and avoid never admitting mistakes, shielding and protecting itself to the finish, and ending up hanging by the abyss.

Taiwan’s education is collapsing, and the 12-year national education program has been falling seriously behind, while the situation in higher education is especially severe. Please leave education a breath of fresh air; please ask a person who truly cares about education, understands education, and is willing to listen to shoulder the monumental task of the nation’s education.

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