One day after taking office as Rector of the University of Macau (UMAC), Professor Yonghua Song stated: “Academic freedom is part of the charter of the UMAC. In any faculty, we need to abide by the charter [and] that is the law of the university.”
Professor Yonghua did not stop here. “What I say is academic freedom is a core value. I can promise you that we will act accordingly with the higher education act of the MSAR and the university charter.”
Why did the subject of academic freedom become the focus of the first press conference of the new rector of UMAC?
In fact, over the last several years the issue has been addressed and since 2014 it has become very present.
It was in this year that UMAC “reportedly refused to renew the contract of Bill Chou Kwok-ping, a professor of political science, in retaliation for his political activism,” said Scholars at Risk Network. “Although the university did not provide him with a reason for its decision, Professor Chou has indicated that the non-renewal of his contract was a result of his political activism, and not his job performance,” still according to the same source.
“As for myself, from April 2012 onwards, after I began participating in high-profile social activism – criticizing the government for its conservative political development programmes at the time and the bias toward pro-government supporters during government public consultations – troubles followed one after another,” wrote Bill Chou in a Human Rights in China report in 2014, where he details in its entirety the process that ended with his dismissal.
“Academic freedom is a core value. I can promise you that we will act accordingly with the higher education act of the MSAR and the university charter” – Yonghua Song
“If universities really believe that a lack of political neutrality will affect the quality of teaching why are those professors who are also members of the Communist Party of China (CPC), whose political beliefs are supportive of the CPC regime, able to keep their teaching positions?” ask Professor Bill Chou, now teaching at Education University of Hong Kong.
The truth is that the departure of this political scientist generated much news and created for the first time the idea that academic freedom might not be respected, despite the Basic Law (Article 25 states: ‘All Macau residents shall be equal before the law, and shall be free from discrimination, irrespective of their . . . political persuasion or ideological beliefs) and the Labour Relations Law (‘No employee or applicant for employment shall be unduly privileged, or discriminated against or deprived of any right or exempted from any duty on the grounds of, inter alia, national or social origin. . . political or ideological beliefs, membership of associations, education or economic background) provide legal protection for academic freedom.)’
The theme reappeared in public opinion last year when UMAC Professor Hao Zhidong said academic freedom was shrinking in the university. The sociologist gave as example the requirements that have been issued asking faculty members to report who they will meet and what they are going to do when on academic visits to Taiwan.
“I think that academic freedom is shrinking in the sense with some indicators, like the firing of, non-continuance of contract of Bill Chou. But there are other indicators, or indications of less encouragement in politically controversial debates or discussions on campus. One of the most recent indications is the requirement of faculty members to report whether they have met people from Taiwan [and] if they go to visit Taiwan who are they going to meet [and] what are they going to do. We have to report all of that if that’s an official, or research business. And the question is why?” he asked TDM.
At the time both the Vice Chancellor of UMAC and the Tertiary Education Services Office denied the allegation but – as can be seen from Professor Yonghua Song’s first statements – the question remains pertinent.
That year of 2014
It was in 2014 that we began to hear about the erosion of academic freedom in Macau. And not just regarding Professor Bill Chou’s dismissal.
At the same time, in another university of Macau another professor was dispensed on political grounds: Éric Sautedé, a French national and former professor of politics at the University of Saint Joseph, established by the Catholic University of Portugal.
According to Éric Sautedé’s own explanation he was dismissed “due to his political commentaries: he had written a newspaper article criticising Macau’s Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On for lacking charisma and an academic essay in which he criticised the government of Macau,” (from the report made by Bill Chou to Human Rights in China).
Father Peter Stilwell, Rector of the University of Saint Joseph, publicly announced that the decision to dismiss Éric Sautedé was “in keeping with the Church’s guiding principle of non-involvement in local political debates, and pointed out that the dismissal was a decision out of respect for Sautedé’s beliefs.”
