A group of academics yesterday launched a petition to request that the Ministry of Education revoke its decision to appoint National Taiwan University (NTU) professor Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔) as the university’s president.
Among the academics were Academia Sinica academicians Chen Lan-bo (陳良博) and Chou Chang-hung (周昌弘), NTU professor Jang Show-ling (鄭秀玲), NTU professor emeritus Ho De-fen (賀德芬), NTU adjunct professor Chang Ching-hsi (張清溪) and Taiwan Association of University Professors president Lin Hsiu-hsin (林秀幸).
Although the Executive Yuan said that it cannot revoke the ministry’s decision to appoint Kuan, there are “valid legal means” to do so, they said in a joint statement.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Kuan was elected NTU president on Jan. 5 last year and was originally scheduled to take office the next month, but the ministry in May demanded a re-election on the grounds that Kuan failed to disclose a possible conflict of interest in the election, as he served as an independent director at Taiwan Mobile Co and company vice president Richard Tsai (蔡明興) sat on the election committee.
Former minister of education Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮), who took office in July, initially instructed the university to redo parts of the election without Tsai to correct what he called a “procedural flaw” in the process.
However, after the university repeatedly refused, citing a lack of legal basis, Yeh on Monday last week announced that he would “reluctantly agree” to Kuan’s appointment and ordered the university to submit a report reviewing the controversies that arose during the presidential election.
He tendered his resignation the following day after the decision drew a backlash.
Yeh’s announcement came just two days before the Executive Yuan rejected three administrative appeals filed by the university, Kuan and a group of NTU students requesting that Kuan be appointed based on their interpretation of the law.
Yeh must have known that the Executive Yuan would reject the appeals and decided to appoint Kuan in advance without the approval of Premier William Lai (賴清德), the academics said yesterday.
While Yeh’s behavior was “extremely ridiculous,” what they found “most regrettable” was the Executive Yuan’s claim that Kuan’s appointment cannot be revoked, they said.
Article 117 of the Administrative Procedure Act (行政程序法) stipulates that government agencies and their superior authorities can revoke a previously issued administrative injunction that is found to be illegal and falls within their jurisdiction, they added.
As an NTU presidential candidate has filed an administrative appeal against the Executive Yuan over Kuan’s appointment, the ministry should review whether its decision to appoint him is legal, as stipulated in Paragraph 2, Article 58 of the Administrative Appeal Act (訴願法), and revoke the decision, the academics said, referring to an administrative appeal filed by NTU professor Wu Ruey-beei (吳瑞北) on Friday last week.
Meanwhile, Yeh has contravened the Public Functionary Service Act (公務員服務法), which bans civil servants from contradicting a superior’s instructions that fall within their jurisdiction and promoting the personal interests of themselves or others by abusing their position, they said.
By “debunking the government’s lies” about the appointment being irreversible, the academics said that they hope more people would join their call to revoke Kuan’s appointment before he takes office on Tuesday next week.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS