The Control Yuan's decision to impeach Minister of Education Ovid Tzeng (
"Tzeng's academic achievements and his dedication to Taiwan's educational reform leave no room for criticism. Nonetheless, the agreement reached on Monday [to impeach Tzeng] was due to his violation of the Nationality Law over the past eight years. It is simply a legal issue. There is no reason to politicize the entire matter," Lin said.
Lin's statement was made in response to fierce criticism by numerous educational organizations that said that the decision was unjust and politically motivated.
"I wonder why the Control Yuan has suddenly become so efficient as to pass this motion within such a remarkably short period of time? I suspect the decision was a political move," DPP lawmaker Chiu Tai-san (
Chiu, joined by representatives from dozens of educational organizations, held a news conference yesterday to garner support for Tzeng.
The Control Yuan's decision to impeach Tzeng for unlawfully serving in three positions at national universities while holding dual citizenship, has created a stir among the public.
Lin said that Tzeng had been negligent over the issue and that several notices from the Ministry of Education -- his direct supervisory unit when he served as administrator of National Cheng Cheng University (CCU) and National Yang Ming University (YMU) -- were sent to remind him to revoke his US citizenship.
However, Tzeng took no action, Lin said.
What makes him more vulnerable to the impeachement charges is that on June 29 of last year he promised to renounce his US citizenship within a year, when he began his stint as president of YMU, Lin said.
Though he filed the paperwork to renounce his US citizenship at the American Institute in Taiwan on June 5 of this year, the procedure was not completed until July 14, which was too late, Lin said.
Tzeng was accused of breaching Article 10 of the National Law Enforcement Statute when he served as the dean of the College of Social Science at CCU from August 1992 to May 2000. The statute stipulates that employees of state-run education facilities are considered public officials, and as such must revoke citizenship of other countries.
The statute was revised in February of this year, to state that only those who gain approval from their supervisors can hold dual citizenship and serve as president of a national university.
Tzeng, as president of YMU at the time, continued to violate the legal regulations because he never applied for approval from the education ministry.
Lin said the verdict was based on Article 1 of the Civil Servant Services Act (
The related documents are in the hands of the Judicial Yuan's Committee on the Discipline of Public Functionaries. It is up to them to decide how to deal with the case.
According to Article 9 of the Law on Discipline of Public Functionaries (
"Our next move will be directed at the education ministry, because it failed to monitor its subordinate organizations as a supervisory unit for all educational institutions of the country," Lin said.
CHIPMAKING INVESTMENT: J.W. Kuo told legislators that Department of Investment Review approval would be needed were Washington to seek a TSMC board seat Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said he received information about a possible US government investment in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and an assessment of the possible effect on the firm requires further discussion. If the US were to invest in TSMC, the plan would need to be reviewed by the Department of Investment Review, Kuo told reporters ahead of a hearing of the legislature’s Economics Committee. Kuo’s remarks came after US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said that the US government is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers that
NORTHERN STRIKE: Taiwanese military personnel have been training ‘in strategic and tactical battle operations’ in Michigan, a former US diplomat said More than 500 Taiwanese troops participated in this year’s Northern Strike military exercise held at Lake Michigan by the US, a Pentagon-run news outlet reported yesterday. The Michigan National Guard-sponsored drill involved 7,500 military personnel from 36 nations and territories around the world, the Stars and Stripes said. This year’s edition of Northern Strike, which concluded on Sunday, simulated a war in the Indo-Pacific region in a departure from its traditional European focus, it said. The change indicated a greater shift in the US armed forces’ attention to a potential conflict in Asia, it added. Citing a briefing by a Michigan National Guard senior
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant
ENHANCED SECURITY: A Japanese report said that the MOU is about the sharing of information on foreign nationals entering Japan from Taiwan in the event of an emergency The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday confirmed that Taiwan and Japan had signed an agreement to promote information exchanges and cooperation on border management, although it did not disclose more details on the pact. Ministry spokesman Hsiao Kuang-wei (蕭光偉) said the ministry is happy to see that the two nations continue to enhance cooperation on immigration control, in particular because Taiwan and Japan “share a deep friendship and frequent people-to-people exchanges.” “Last year, more than 7.32 million visits were made between the two countries, making it even more crucial for both sides to work closer on immigration and border control,” he said. Hsiao
RSS