◎ Guo Suo
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wanan has been controversial recently, and the authenticity of his academic qualifications has attracted public attention. (File photo)
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wanan's academic qualifications have stirred up controversy again recently. The English resume of the 10th Legislative Yuan originally listed his degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School as "Doctor of the Science of Law (S.J.D.)", but now it has been changed to "Juris Doctor (J.D.)". The Beijing Municipal Government responded on September 26 that during the ninth and tenth legislative terms of Chiang Wanan, the Chinese information provided by the office was always "J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Law", and the English information was translated by a manufacturer entrusted by the Legislative Yuan based on Chinese information, and stated that it had notified the Legislative Yuan to update. The media also reported that the English information for the ninth session was originally J.D., and S.J.D. did not appear until the tenth session. In other words, the most important thing to find out now is not what degree Jiang Wanan obtained. There is no fraud in J.D. itself, but how S.J.D. appeared in the official resume and why it was corrected many years later.
But the most puzzling thing about this explanation is precisely the "translation error by the outsourced manufacturer." J.D. and S.J.D. are not misspelled English letters, nor are they different abbreviations for the same degree, but different legal degrees. What's more, Jiang Wanan obtained a degree from the United States, and the original name of the degree was originally English Juris Doctor. Wang Yichuan therefore questioned why American academic qualifications, which have English names, were first changed into Chinese, then handed over to the manufacturer for "Chinese-English translation", and finally translated into another degree? This question is still a public question by a politician. It cannot be directly used to determine that Jiang Wanan himself provided the S.J.D., but for this reason, the Legislative Yuan should disclose the original submission materials and translation process of the 10th session, so that the record can answer the question, rather than letting each party speak its own story.
Please read on...
Democratic Progressive Party legislator Wang Yichuan questioned why American academic qualifications, which have English names, were first converted into Chinese, then handed over to manufacturers to "translate from Chinese to English", and finally translated into another degree? (File photo)
What is really worthy of discussion is the responsible attitude of politicians when facing mistakes. The official website lists one's name, photo, and academic experience. If the mistake exists for many years, the person involved can certainly say "I did not publish it," but this cannot end public accountability. This time there was even another procedural issue. The media reported that the description on the website of the 10th Legislative Yuan stated that "data for past sessions will no longer be open for revision." Therefore, the outside world requested clarification on who made the correction, who approved it, and what procedures were used to complete the modification. The North City Government maintains that there is no issue with what outsiders call the "correction deadline." Since there is a gap between the two statements, the easiest way is to make the modification records and administrative procedures public.
It’s no wonder that “it’s never my fault, Jiang Wanan” has become a political narrative that critics can seize on. After a problem occurs, pointing the cause to the manufacturer, organizer or administrative process may explain how the error occurred, but it cannot replace the political responsibility that the head of state should have. The focus of today's controversy does not even have to stop at the word "doctor", but rather whether a politician chooses to proactively explain the complete flow of information when his official resume makes mistakes, or whether he only emphasizes that "the information I provided is correct." If the manufacturer is wrong, then the original data should be published to prove where the manufacturer went wrong; if the ninth class is J.D. and the tenth class suddenly becomes S.J.D., what happened in the middle should be explained. Public records are more convincing than any verbal clarification.
It was recently revealed that Jiang Wanan's resume in the Legislative Yuan was suddenly changed from S.J.D. to J.D., and it should be explained what happened in the meantime. (Taken from Wu Jingyi’s Facebook)
The responsibility of democratic politics has never been just "whether I did it myself", but whether those who hold public power are willing to be responsible for public information related to them. Jiang Wanan does not need to take the blame for something he has not done, but he also cannot expect that all doubts will be put to an end with just "the outsourcing manufacturer made a translation error". By making all submission materials, outsourced translation records, and this revision process public for the 9th and 10th session, the truth will become clear. Otherwise, for every dispute, another person will be found to take technical responsibility, and the impression left on the public will only become more and more distinct: things can go wrong, data can go wrong, manufacturers can make mistakes, but in the end, it will never be my fault, Jiang Wanan.
(The author is a freelance reviewer)
