Indigenous people highlight their plight at “National Fate” roundtable meeting

["Taiwan Church News" <enews@pctpress.org>]

3115 Edition

November 7~13, 2011

Headline News

Indigenous people highlight their plight at “National Fate” roundtable meeting

Reported by Simon Lin

Written by Lydia Ma

To mark the 40th anniversary of the drafting and publishing of PCT’s “Statement 
On Our National Fate” in 1971, PCT General Assembly organized a series of 
roundtable meetings recently with the latest session especially designed for 
indigenous pastors and members. This session was held at Presbyterian Bible 
College on November 2-3, 2011, and special guests at the session included DPP 
vice-presidential candidate Su Jia-chyuan and Taiwan Solidarity Union Chairman 
Huang Kun-fei.

PCT General Secretary Andrew Chang opened the session by asking, “It’s been 40 
years since the publication of “Statement On Our National Fate”, so, why are we 
meeting here today?” He said the reason why this statement is still relevant 
today is because Taiwan had gone to great lengths in the past few decades to 
build a democratic and free country, which is still at a nascent stage today. 

Unfortunately, these past 3 years under the Ma administration has imperiled 
these achievements through misguided policies. Chang said the Ma 
administration’s disregard for Taiwan’s sovereignty, disloyalty toward 
Taiwanese people, and collusion with business corporations at the expense of 
indigenous groups, are reasons enough for the church to rise up as God’s 
stewards in Taiwan and work toward creating a just, democratic, and independent 
Taiwan.

Su Jia-chyuan said the DPP has been an advocate of indigenous rights for a long 
time and has participated in indigenous land rights movements in the past. He 
vowed that if the DPP were elected, it would be willing to issue a formal 
apology on behalf of the Taiwanese government to indigenous groups for all past 
injustices. He added that his government would create truth and reconciliation 
commissions to resolve all grievances involving cultural, language, and land 
rights so that government policies would be conducive to indigenous 
self-determination.

Pastors at this roundtable meeting said they were glad to hear that the DPP 
would take the lead in protecting indigenous peoples’ rights and hoped it would 
keep its word if elected.

Fenghsin Presbyterian Church pastor, Rev. Chen Nan-jou, was a key speaker at 
this roundtable meeting where he spoke on “What ‘The Statement on our National 
Fate’ says about the social responsibility of Christians”. He underscored that 
whereas most citizens care about politics because it’s part of exercising their 
social responsibility or may prove advantageous for their personal gain, 
Christians are called to care about politics because of their religious 
convictions, including Christ’s command to love others as oneself and bring 
about God’s will on earth as it is in heaven. 

Chen added that Christians are called to care about politics so that society 
may reflect God’s love and all the principles of God’s kingdom. He added that 
each era wrestles with different issues, which means that Christians across the 
centuries have different social responsibilities. For the current Christian 
generation, it is the church’s responsibility care about the plight of 
indigenous peoples and do something about it.

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