Hsinchu City Councilor Lin Keng-jen (林耕仁), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate for Hsinchu mayor, on Monday denied wrongdoing and submitted material to be reviewed by his alma mater after he became the latest candidate in November’s local elections to face accusations of plagiarism.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus earlier in the day held a news conference at which it accused Lin of plagiarizing his master’s thesis in a National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU) executive master of business administration program.
Hsinchu City Councilor Liu Kang-yen (劉康彥) has reported the situation to NYCU.
Photo: Hung Mei-hsiu, Taipei Times
DPP spokeswoman Lin Chin-yi (林靜儀) said that text identical to content from government reports can be found on 31 pages of Lin Keng-jen’s 54-page thesis, or about 60 percent.
The party asked Lin Keng-jen and the KMT to clarify whether he plagiarized his thesis and whether he used his power as a city councilor to obtain government reports, DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said.
Ker asked KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) to apologize to the public, as the party “nominated an unqualified candidate” and called on Lin Keng-jen to clarify the circumstances leading to the accusation.
NYCU yesterday confirmed that it had received the DPP’s report and would begin an investigation.
A university committee would announce its findings in 120 days, starting from the day after the report was received, but would not explain investigation details during the process, it said.
Lin Keng-jen said that following similar accusations against former KMT legislator Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑), the party’s candidate for Keelung mayor, and former premier Simon Chang (張善政), its Taoyuan mayoral candidate, the DPP is up to “its usual trick.”
The DPP is trying to turn public attention away from the controversy of a campaign video in which former minister of health and welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), the DPP’s candidate for Taipei mayor, “promoted sexual harassment” and the lackluster performance of its Hsinchu mayoral candidate, Hsinchu Deputy Mayor Shen Hui-hung (沈慧虹), Lin Keng-jen said.
The thesis analyzed security and traffic in Hsinchu City, as these were the two issues most frequently mentioned in petitions from 2008 to 2010, he said.
In the literature review section, he analyzed public information from the government, which was all properly cited, he said.
He thanked the DPP for pointing out that he missed six citations in his thesis and said that he admitted his mistakes.
He “would not bow to the DPP’s false accusations,” he said, adding that he has sent documents to NYCU’s research ethics committee and would “fight for his innocence.”
Asked about the plagiarism accusation against Chang, Chu on Monday said that it was a low-class act that “the public would not accept.”
Ever since former Hsinchu mayor Lin Chih-chien (林智堅) — who was the DPP’s candidate for Taoyuan mayor — dropped out after National Taiwan University’s (NTU) academic ethics committee recommended that his master’s degree be revoked, saying he had plagiarized the work of another graduate student, the DPP has been trying to “excuse Lin Chih-chien by dragging everyone else down,” Chu said.
Separately on Monday, Lin Chih-chien appointed a lawyer to file an administrative appeal to the Ministry of Education, saying that the process NTU’s committee used was flawed and seeking revocation of its Aug. 9 decision.
The ministry yesterday confirmed that it received the appeal and would deliberate the case according to the law.
Additional reporting by Hsieh Chun-lin,
Hung Mei-hsiu, Cheng Shu-ting and Yang Mien-chieh
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