Taiwan Church News

3327 Edition

November 30 - December 6, 2015

Editorial

Let Us Concern Human Rights And Build The Kingdom Of God Together

When 6 defendants of Ting Hsin International Group, a giant instant-noodle maker in China and Taiwan, were found not guiltyin the first trial of the adulterated cooking-oil case on November 27, a lots of Taiwanese took to the streets expressing their desperate despair and furious protest with slogans: "Justice is Dead!". Except starting another wave of consumer movement as "Annihilate Ting Hsin International Group", this verdict dramatically run against the social expectation of Taiwan society and raised some further questions: Was there something wrong of the panel of judges? Or, the unbelievable result was due to the imprudence of the prosecutors? In fact, this incredible verdict was just a natural court ruling based the codes, specified on Article 154 of The Code of Criminal Procedure, as "Prior to a final conviction through trial, an accused is presumed to be innocent". In other words, the reason why the defendants of Ting Hsin International Group were found not guilty was that the evidences submitted by the prosecutors were not accepted by the judges as qualified proof to convict those shocking charges.

If such principle of "presumption of innocence" was insisted, then these judges really deserve our highest respect and confirmation as they have successfully safeguarded our last fortress for human rights. But, the real problem is whether the principle of "presumption of innocence" is fairly applied without discrimination or just selectively for particular case? If we looked carefully about the facts of Taiwan's juridical environment, obviously the principle of "presumption of innocence" is not deemed as a fundamental rule in most courts because still lots of cases are manipulated by the political power. For example, the case of Long-Tan Land Purchase filed against former President Chen Shui-bian is a typical one. This problem, that the judge can not deliver an independent verdict, is also the biggest obstacle in Taiwan's juridical reformation. Especially, under the regime of KMT, most of juridical cases are always interfered by the invisible political forces incessantly.

In the mean time, we also have to check how Taiwan media violates the human rights. Claiming that people have rights to know and find the truth and etc, Taiwan media always add their own comments into their first-hand reports. Before the final verdict, these comments are easily denigrated as tabloid columns or gossips planting hatred and fear in the mind of common folks. These are actually another versions of "brainwash" or "bullying" to the defendant in the court. Wasn't former President Chen Shui-bian treated by Taiwan media like the malicious evil-doer? How different are those 6 defendants of Tin Hsin Int'l Group treated than Chen's case? When we act to protect our human rights, it is worthy to think carefully about the question: what is the boundary of the media power?

All these problems could not be ignored by Christians. When our PCT confession commit that "God has given human beings dignity, talents and a homeland, so that they may share in God's creation, and have responsibility with Him for taking care of the world", then the critical human rights, which acts as an index about the image of God and the dignity of human being, has to be set as our priority to figure out a road map to materialize such ideal. Christian faith is not a belief, delivering people serenity in order and wealth in earth, but a committed action following Jesus to care for the marginalized, love neighbors through suffering and even sacrifice ourselves in order to reconcile with God. Christian faith is a power making us committed of reflection and action, enabling God's love, justice and peace to be with us.

Commemorating the impending Human Rights Day, we sincerely hope the development of Taiwan is not only limited to economical progress. A more comprehensive progress and respect for human dignity and basic human rights is our vision for the future of Taiwan. Let us building the Kingdom of God together!