The Darkest “Education Fig Leaf” in History: How Many Dark Hands Has It Covered?

  The Darkest “Education Fig Leaf” in History: How Many Dark Hands Has It Covered?

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

May 13, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

National Taiwan University (NTU) convoked an extraordinary session of the university council yesterday to discuss whether or not to reopen the president selection process; when the matter was put to a vote, it was resolved, 76 to 43, to maintain its existing position, asking the Ministry of Education to handle the result of NTU’s president selection and issue a letter of appointment as soon as possible in accordance with the “University Act” and other regulations. This result explains that NTU refused to accept the Education Ministry’s administrative threat, fearlessly facing down the series of interventions by political forces. We express our respect to such spirit of NTU in persevering in academic freedom and campus democracy; and we also demand that the Education Ministry be prepared to handle the end game, never to embroil the whole government in a great storm.

In the past four months, the Education Ministry has been engaged, around the clock, day and night, in the "great cause" of plucking NTU president-elect Kuan Chung-ming, exerting all tactics, but has failed so far to subjugate NTU. Plainly stated, the reason is that its tactics have been too ferocious, however, holding incompatible grounds. The DPP feels that it owned the whole country, taking what it wants and getting what it wants, regardless of the perceptions of the outside world, nor having to consider the feelings of the public. Today, it employs the same high-handed manners to deal with the top notch university in Taiwan, not minding stomping on the dignity of higher education under its feet, pushing campus autonomy, which itself once pursued, into a quagmire. However, this crude and violent tactic obviously could not break through the fortress of NTU and its constituents.

In the past months, the Ministry of Education has successively investigated Kuan Chung-ming’s suspected cases involving serving as an independent director on a business board, plagiarism in academic papers, and holding part-time jobs on the Mainland, brewing them into the talk of the town. However, in its latest letter of reply and its press release to the public, the Education Ministry, nevertheless, could not pinpoint any transgressions in the charges that would bar Kuan Chung-ming from serving as NTU president. Up to now, the only way of self-defense for the Education Ministry cannot but classify the minutes of all meetings reviewing the matter as “confidential” in order to cover up its own scam and protect the ugly reputation of the dark hands in various ministries for “corralling Kuan.” It may be said that from the moment that the Ministry of Education classified as “confidential” the minutes of its meetings on the selection of NTU president, it was proclaimed that the darkest “education fig leaf” in history had been born!

May we ask, with all the winds and rains in the past four months, what exactly is the drama being staged? The Education Ministry has not given Kuan Chung-ming an opportunity to explain, while depriving him and NTU of their right to seek redress by administrative appeal, even in the part of charges in which no illegalities had been found after investigation, not being willing to pronounce the principal innocent. Finally, corroborated by the tactic of “confidential documents,” it has further confirmed that the Education Ministry is diffident and unreasonable. The darkest "education fig leaf" in history will again rob NTU of its president.

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