Academia Sinica issued a statement on Friday responding to the recent tumult over one of its researchers being accused of dereliction of duty for participating in the Sunflower movement and called on society to “have a positive view” of researchers’ public expression of opinions.
The Anti Taiwan Independence Historical View Alliance staged protests for two days last week against Academia Sinica researcher Huang Kuo-chang’s (黃國昌) participation in the Sunflower movement — the student-led protest that occupied the Legislative Yuan’s chamber on March 18 for three weeks over the handling of the cross-strait service trade agreement.
The alliance accused Huang, a researcher at the institute and thus a civil servant, of violating the Civil Service Administrative Neutrality Act (公務人員行政中立法) by participating in politically charged protests during business hours and asked the institute to look into his attendance and academic record.
Academia Sinica responded in the statement that — as the nation’s top research institute — it has always respected its researchers’ value judgements and choices, and avoided forcing particular points of view upon its individual workers.
“The institute, to substantiate the freedom of speech protected by a democratic society, also respects each researcher’s public expression of views about public issues based on his or her values and beliefs,” the statement says.
While the researchers, as civil servants, are bound to comply with the Act, “Huang had used holidays and taken days off for his participation in non-political-party-initiated activities and therefore had not run afoul of the regulations,” it said.
Regarding whether Huang, could be disciplined by the Act of Disciplinary Sanctions of Public Functionaries (公務員懲戒法), the institute clarified that Huang does not hold an administrative position in the department and is therefore not punishable, as the law is not applicable to those who do not hold administrative positions.
“Academic research cannot be segregated in the ivory tower or isolated from the people, the nation’s development and the society’s movement. It should be the manifestation of the human pursuit of eternal values.”
“That the scholars’ freedom to propose their ideas based upon their studies and knowledge should be protected is an undisputed aspect of a democratic society,” it said. “Academia Sinica as a public research establishment strives to maintain its impartial stance and values plurality and richness of views voiced by individual researchers. Those who do not hold administrative power or are not involved in the distribution of administrative resources should be allowed to express their opinions publicly and their action be positively appraised.”
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
RSS