Presbyterian Church in Taiwan on Recent Events

For those of you who do not know, during the martial law era, when many mainstream Churches were in bed with the regime, the Presbyterian Church fought hard for human rights in Taiwan. This is a powerful voice with a deep and glorious history. They are passing around a "prayer letter" on the recent events.

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台 灣 10647 台 北 市 羅 斯 福 路 三 段 269 巷 3 號
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN TAIWAN

3, Lane 269, Roosevelt Road Sec. 3, Taipei 10647 TAIWAN
General Secretary: Rev. Andrew T. C. Chang


11 November 2008


AN APPEAL BY PCT TO THE GLOBAL CHURCH FAMILY FOR PRAYERS CONCERNING THE ABUSE OF JUSTICE AND VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN TAIWAN

On behalf of the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT) and out of unyielding concern for the dignity and selfhood of the 23 million people of our nation, as well as for peace in the Asia region, we sincerely appeal to you our sisters and brothers in Christ to join us in expressing concern and offering prayers for Taiwan.

Ever since the Legislative Elections of January 2008 when the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang KMT) garnered the overwhelming majority of seats and later the KMT candidate, Ma Ying-Jeou, won the Presidential Election on 20 May 2008, the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT), along with many others in our land, have held deep concerns and reservations for the future of democracy and human rights in our country Taiwan.

Sadly, the performance of President Ma and his KMT administration the past six months has time and again underscored our fears. We in particular express our grave concern for recent events:

1) the detentions of both present and former government officials of the opposition party, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) accused of corruption. We understand one or two detainees have been charged but several accused are still held without being charged and incommunicado, this is a basic violation of due process of justice and rule of law. Furthermore, we are concerned the prosecutor’s office is seemingly leaking information to the press while the accused are unable to defend themselves. This “trial by press” also violates justice and the norm that any accused should be considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Since only members of the DPP opposition party are targeted this action implies the KMT is “using” the justice system to retaliate the former government under Chen’s administration.

2) the visit to Taiwan (3-7 Nov 2008) of Mr. Chen Yun-Lin, Chairman of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) from China; and the signing of the four cross-strait accords between the ARATS chairman Chen and the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) represented by its Chairman, Chiang Pin-Kung. This action to develop direct aviation, shipping, market trade and economic relations with China accelerated fears that the methods used by the Ma Administration are costly in terms of the legal process, Taiwan’s dignity and sovereignty as well as being a real threat to democracy in Taiwan.

3) the violation of human rights, freedom of speech and expression, undergirded by the government’s action to deploy more than 10,000 police including riot police officers, to Taipei city to “guard” the visiting dignitary Chen and the sixty people who accompanied him. These measures to “guard and protect” the visiting envoy from China were excessive and disturbingly reminiscent of the dark years under Martial Law.

With this letter we add a brief overview of some of the events of last week that hopefully will help you further understand the reason for our concerns.

On behalf of the PCT and Taiwan, thank you for your support and we ask that you kindly share this prayer request with your church members.

Sincerely yours, in grace and peace

Rev. Chang Te-Chien (Andrew)

General Secretary

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The money paragraph:

Furthermore, we are concerned the prosecutor’s office is seemingly leaking information to the press while the accused are unable to defend themselves. This “trial by press” also violates justice and the norm that any accused should be considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Since only members of the DPP opposition party are targeted this action implies the KMT is “using” the justice system to retaliate the former government under Chen’s administration.

The way that the Ma government is moving is usually described as regressing backwards towards authoritarianism, but actually they are moving forward...... in the direction of Singapore.

[Taiwan]