Director-General and Professor Chen Should Step Down at the Same Time
China Times Editorial, December 3, 2022
It has been more than a week since the end of the local elections, but the so-called “green surprise” continues to unfold. The "Essay Gate" misconduct that caused the defeat of the DPP has recently had a new development.
On December 2, National Taiwan University (NTU) revoked the master’s degree of Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan for plagiarizing his thesis. For the same reason, on December 3, National Taipei University revoked the doctoral degree of Keelung mayoral candidate Tsai Shih-ing. The DPP lost the mayoral election in both Taoyuan and Keelung. However, the results were not affected by revocation of the degrees of Cheng and Tsai. During the mayoral campaign rally, President Tsai Ing-wen had repeatedly indicated to the voters of Keelung that if the DPP failed to win the mayoralty, the continuation of many municipal projects would be unsustainable.
The DPP also suffered setbacks in the mayoral race in Taoyuan. Outgoing Mayor Cheng apparently became the common factor among the DPP’s factions after the election: He had not only headed the review committee for the 2022 defeat but had also been rumored to be involved in the formation of a new Cabinet.
Plagiarism has been endorsed all the way by DPP Legislator Cheng Yun-peng, who replaced as mayoral candidate former Hsinchu Mayor Lin Chih-Chien after the latter withdrew from the Taoyuan mayoral race amid plagiarism charges surrounding his master thesis; and Cheng, the incumbent mayor. This so-called “Taoyuan Triad” has become the laughingstock of the year.
Even more pathetic and ridiculous is the fact that Professor Chen Ming-tong, mentor to the two plagiarists, is the current director-general of the National Security Bureau (NSB). As a professor at NTU, Taiwan’s top university, Chen was Cheng and Lin’s thesis supervisor. The revocation of the master’s degrees of two prominent political figures is unprecedented. At this point, anyone with a sense of shame or academic conscience would have resigned from NTU faculty and the NSB. Moreover, they would have publicly apologized for their lack of rigor or perhaps even deliberate laxity. The scandal has severely damaged the reputation of NTU and set a poor example for Taiwan’s academic community.
Nevertheless, either Chen or even President Tsai, who has been supporting Chen explicitly, continues to evade the problem. Following the eruption of Lin’s plagiarism case in July, NTU decided in August against renewing Chen’s employment. However, Chen not only remained in his position as the head of the NSB but also arrogantly and shamelessly commented “Director-General Chen will not answer questions meant for Professor Chen” when under oral interpellation by legislators. Furthermore, he refused to offer any explanation of the wrongdoing or apologize to the students he was instructing. When suspicions arose regarding the presence of a linkage between corporate donations and Lin's master’s degree, Chen repeated “Director-General Chen will not answer questions meant for Professor Chen.”
No matter how Chen Min-tong dodges responsibility through the “split personality” mindset, his roles as NSB director-general and NTU professor, and the two roles essentially represent the same thing. If Professor Chen had not developed a certain degree of influence in the academic world over the years, why would President Tsai have repeatedly supported and promoted him, even placing him in charge of national security matters? If not for the fact that his position and style are favored by the top echelons of the political arena, how could so many “green politicians” have vied for the position? Chen has been mentoring a record number of green politicians for quite some time. He and his protégés have formed a pivotal faction in both NTU and the academic circle. Chen’s roles as director-general and professor are virtually indistinguishable. Without Professor Chen, there would be no Director-General Chen, and without the support of Director-General Chen, the value of Professor Chen would be greatly diminished. In short, the two roles are mutualistic.
However, under the protection and connivances of President Tsai, Chen has been extremely brazen. After a series of plagiarism outbreaks surrounding NTU theses, political and media circles have advocated the comprehensive examination of the master’s theses of Chen's students. Regarding the cases of Lin and Cheng, an ad hoc NTU committee will launch an investigation into the theses of Chen’s students. How many of the 173 political and media professionals Chen has mentored will pass the test? The results are foreseeable.
The results of the local elections clearly show that the people are no longer willing to continue appeasing and blindly supporting the degenerate and corrupt DPP. Unless she wishes to suffer the censure of public opinion, President Tsai must make up her mind to remove Chen from the Cabinet. Should the DPP choose to cover up the scandals surrounding this type of scum, it will lose the vestiges of dignity and public support to which it clings.
From: https://www.chinatimes.com/opinion/20221203003125-262101?chdtv