The Ministry of Education yesterday instructed National Taiwan University (NTU) to re-elect a president from the five finalists of the previous election — including NTU finance professor Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔), whose election was rejected by the ministry in May — on the condition that Taiwan Mobile Co (台灣大哥大) vice president Richard Tsai (蔡明興) is barred from voting to avoid a conflict of interest.
The ministry is not asking the university to launch an election from square one, but only to “redo the step found to be flawed,” Minister of Education Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮) told a news conference at the ministry in Taipei.
The committee on Jan. 5 elected Kuan to be NTU president and he was originally scheduled to take office on Feb. 1, but the ministry on May 4 refused to approve his election on the grounds that there was a conflict of interest in the election process, as Kuan allegedly did not tell the committee that he was an independent member of Taiwan Mobile’s board of directors, even though Tsai was on the election committee.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
The university, a group of NTU students and Kuan have each filed an administrative appeal requesting that the ministry honor the election results and appoint him.
A report issued by the Judicial Yuan on Aug. 16 concluded that Kuan had contravened the Act Governing the Appointment of Educators (教育人員任用條例) in his capacity at Taiwan Mobile, and that he and Tsai had each failed to disclose the conflict of interest prior to the election.
When the ministry requested a re-election in May, it did not specify how it should be conducted and the summer break has made it difficult for the election committee to meet to resolve the controversy, Yeh said.
“Now that school has begun, things should be different. The committee should convene a meeting to address the concerns raised by the ministry and the Control Yuan, and officially respond to them,” he said.
The committee must first determine whether to remove Tsai or have him refrain from voting, and then relaunch the final round of the election with the same five candidates, he said.
The candidates were Kuan, Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences director Chou Mei-yin (周美吟), Administrative Affairs vice president and physics professor Chang Ching-ray (張慶瑞), Graduate Institute of Networking and Multimedia professor Chen Ming-hsien (陳銘憲) and history professor Chen Jo-shui (陳弱水).
If NTU refuses to cooperate, the ministry would formally respond to the administrative appeal by Oct. 3, he said, adding that he hopes to avoid a lawsuit, because it might affect the university’s stability.
“Only by ensuring fairness can presidential elections be considered legitimate. I hope that there will be no more hesitation from either side, because the nation’s administrative procedures, which are essential to the rule of law, must not be further compromised,” Yeh said.
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
RSS