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　Towards a new era

Prisons and persecution have prepared men and women for a new government in Taiwan, writes Dr. Dan Beeby.

The Japanese took Taiwan in1895 and the Nationalist Chinese took it from them 50 years later. The latter were initially welcomed, but they treated the Taiwanese as enemies and slaughtered 20,000 of them in 1947. The Japanese had forbidden school-children to speak their own language. The Nationalists were no better: after 1945 they educated Taiwan's children in Mandarin Chinese and would not let them speak Japanese or Taiwanese.

Under their rule people disappeared or were murdered. Political accidents were common. Martial law was in force until the late 1980s, when opposition parties were allowed for the first time and democratic processes slowly flourished.

They gained pace over the next decade, until the Democratic Progressive Party (D PP) overcome the island's corruption and fear in March 2000 when a 49-year old Taiwanese lawyer from the party, Chen Shui-bia, was elected president by a narrow majority. Votes for him had come from the young and educated, the south, and the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan (PCT).
This was the culmination of years of struggle and oppression. Some years of ago Mr. Chen had been unjustly imprisoned and his wife run over. When the driver realized he hadn't killed her, he ran her over twice more. Today she's in a wheelchair.

At around the same time the chairman of the new ruling party, Lim Gi Hiong, was also imprisoned and tortured. On visiting day he told hid mother about the torture. She telephoned some Japanese friends, and that same day she was murdered, along with Lim Gi Hiong's twin children. Another daughter was stabbed six times but survived.

The house where the killings took place is now a flourishing Presbyterian house church called Justice Church. The mother of the murdered twins has just been baptised and the daughter who survived is married to an American who is training to be a missionary in Taiwan.

The previous president who paved the way for this democratic change is a Presbyterian Church member who at 78 is doing evangelistic work. The new president is said to be a secret Christian.

Shortly after his election, Mr. Chen was invited to the Presbyterian general assembly, where he was hailed with a welcoming song,"Taiwan Marching Towards a New Era". The church's general secretary greeted the president with,"May God's wisdom be with you."To which he responded,"All of you are my wisdom and your help is God's help."

Back from exile

In his address Mr. Chen said the end of the presidential campaign should be the beginning of his responsibilities. Although faced with military intimidation from the People's Republic of China, he insisted on the dignity, security and sovereignty of Taiwan, aiming to make it a"pure land" in the human realm, and heaven on earth.

A while after the murder of his mother and twins, Lim Gi Hiong spent time in the United Reformed Church's Westminster College in Cambridge, UK. From there he visited my wife and l in Birmingham. Later we met again in his house when he was in California. After the meal he questioned me carefully about what l had said on a morning walk about how Exodus seemed to have influenced the PCT's"Statement on the Nation's Fate",issued in 1971.

Years later, he hadn't forgotten me, and I was delighted when he invited me to the Celebrations for Mr. Chen's installation in May 2000. After nearly 30 years of exile imposed by the Nationalist government, and a place high on the list of unwanted people, it was a pleasant change to be invited back by the new regime with all expenses paid and a reception through the airport's VIP lounge.

For years some of the new leaders had known the suffering of misrule. But there was no bitterness or desire for revenge, and I'd like to think the church has had a part in that miracle.

Dr Dan Beeby served as vice-principal of Tainan Theological College in Taiwan and as head of its old Testament Department in the 1970s.