President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday said she would not intervene in the National Taiwan University (NTU) leadership controversy after Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔), the school’s president-elect, on Sunday called for her to resolve the problem
The Ministry of Education on April 27 declared Kuan unqualified for the post, because he had illegally served as an independent director and a member of the salary and auditing committees at Taiwan Mobile when he was a professor at the school, and because the election had been compromised due to a conflict of interest.
Kuan on Sunday said that he believed Tsai knows who was responsible for the ministry’s decision.
He has previously described the decision as an attempt to undermine the university’s autonomy for political reasons.
He said he hoped Tsai would resolve the dispute by the second anniversary of her inauguration this coming Sunday.
He also urged “those who are concerned about the election to take concrete actions to help the university by donating money.”
Without a formal president, the university could lose funding and its competitive edge, he said.
When asked about Kuan’s comments during a breakfast interveiw with radio talk show host Clara Chou (周玉蔻), Tsai said: “As the president, I will not make a decision on the issue, as it is the Ministry of Education’s responsibility.”
It is crucial the government prevent educational issues from becoming politicized, she said.
“This is a legal issue, not a political issue... Asking the president to interfere would be politicizing it. That would not be right,” she said.
Asked if she knew who made the decision to reject Kuan’s appointment, Tsai said: “Can he tell me who that person is?”
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
The Taipei Department of Health’s latest inspection of fresh fruit and vegetables sold in local markets revealed a 25 percent failure rate, with most contraventions involving excessive pesticide residues, while two durians were also found to contain heavy metal cadmium at levels exceeding safety limits. Health Food and Drug Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) yesterday said the agency routinely conducts inspections of fresh produce sold at traditional markets, supermarkets, hypermarkets, retail outlets and restaurants, testing for pesticide residues and other harmful substances. In its most recent inspection, conducted in May, the department randomly collected 52 samples from various locations, with testing showing
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