Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) councilors on the Taipei City Council yesterday said the city's Bureau of Education had shown political bias by soliciting support from teachers for the pan-blue camp.
The councilors said the bureau had allowed personal details to be used in drumming up support for the pan-blue camp, including mobile phone numbers, home phone numbers and e-mail addresses.
DPP Councilor Lee Chien-chang (李建昌) yesterday said the bureau issued a memorandum to elementary and secondary schools on Jan. 28.
The memo asked personnel departments to provide contact information for the city's 40,000 teaching staff and other school employees.
"But the bureau said it was for sending greeting cards to hard-working teachers and staff. We thought this was untenable and infringed on the teachers' privacy," Lee said at a news conference held at the council building yesterday.
"We strongly suspect that the Bureau of Education had intended to to create a name roll to canvas for the pan-blue camp," Lee said.
"What the bureau did seems to have violated the principle of administrative neutrality," Lee added.
Lee said that Bureau Director Wu Ching-chi (
"It is difficult to believe that these campaign activities have not impacted on Wu's work," Lee said.
Another DPP councilor, Chou Wei-yu (
Chou asked Wu to provide the council with office telephone and fax records to determine whether he had used any public resources for his campaign job.
DPP Councilor Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) said many teachers had complained to her that they felt uncomfortable providing their phone numbers and worried that their contact information would be used unlawfully.
"Many teachers who were reluctant to reveal their mobile phone numbers were concerned that they would become the targets of fraudulent activities," she said.
Government spokesman Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) yesterday defended Wu Ching-chi, who is now in Tainan, saying he had already obtained permission to go on leave and that this had not influenced his work at the bureau.
Bureau of Civil Affairs Director Samuel Wu (吳秀光) said that it was impossible for government officials to give up their political leanings.
He also said that it was acceptable that officials express their political views as long as it was outside of work and did not use public resources.
Wu said in a press release issued late in the day that in order to avoid any misunderstanding, the bureau would postpone compiling the list of teachers and school staff until after the presidential election.
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