wfn.org | Editorial: Who let the dogs out? Who should be tried and sentenced?

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

>      Taiwan Church News

>3041 Edition

>June 7~13, 2010

Editorial: Who let the dogs out? Who should be tried and  sentenced?

>Translated by Lydia Ma

On June 4, 1989, the communist regime in China used tanks to  suppress the 
voices of Chinese

people demanding reform, resulting in the infamous Tiananmen  Square Massacre.

A similar suppression of democracy occurred on June 4 of this year  in Taiwan 
when 12 officials

representing the Referendum Review Committee rejected petitions  from over 
100,000 people

calling for a referendum on the proposed economic cooperation  framework 
agreement (ECFA)

>with China.

The committee’s decision to stifle the most direct form of  democracy in Taiwan 
– a referendum

– stripped Taiwanese people of a basic right and further  highlighted the 
similarity between the

>KMT in Taiwan and the CCP in China.

As we turn our attention to local affairs in central Taiwan, we  can’t help but 
hear the sound of

gunshots, argumentative politicians, and people playing mahjong  streaming out 
from Taichung

City. The city’s public safety record in recent years has  been unbelievably 
poor.

And so, we sigh at the heavy price of democracy. It was our regard  for 
advancing democracy

that compelled us to respect the result of the 2008 presidential  election – 
which ironically led to

declining democracy, corrupt referendum policies, judicial  arrogance, and so 
on.

All of these incidents and trends beg the question: If Taiwanese  people are so 
supportive of the

death penalty, how should they sentence a national leader whose  policies have 
resulted in

millions of jobless people, skyrocketing suicides, and the  disappearance of 
Taiwan as a

>sovereign country?

Or, how should Taiwanese people judge local leaders keen on  turning a blind 
eye to public

projects that threaten public safety and personal property? How  should 
Taiwanese people deal

with officials bent on ignoring injustices? When public policies  kill people 
and the dogs are out

>wreaking havoc, who is to blame?

Taiwan Think Tank CEO Chen Pochih referred to ECFA as a tiger  hiding inside a 
nicely

wrapped box. You could say that we’ve heard this tiger  squirming recently and 
we can almost

see someone opening a gate to let it out. It’s time someone  put this tiger 
back where it belongs

>– in a cage.

Prompted by his sense of responsibility, the prophet Isaiah wrote,  “Hear the 
word of the LORD,

you rulers of Sodom; listen to the law of our God, you people of  Gomorrah! 
Wash and make

yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing  wrong, 
learn to do right!

Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the  fatherless, 
plead the case of

>the widow.” (Isaiah 1:16-17).

Later on, when Isaiah heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom  shall I send? 
And who will go

for us?", and he replied, "Here am I. Send me!" (Isaiah 6:8). His  response 
tells us that he was a

person with a strong sense of civic responsibility for his time.

In the New Testament, we find Jesus also decrying exploitative  policies that 
kept people from

worshipping God. During a trip to Jerusalem, he threw out everyone  who was 
buying and selling

outside the temple. He kicked over the tables of the bankers and  the stalls of 
the pigeon merchants (Mark 11:15).

So, if you should one day see these beasts or tigers or dogs  mentioned above 
prowling about

and harming the well-being of many people, and if you see people  coming 
forward to fight them

with their lives, don’t be a mere spectator or an indifferent  bystander. Don’t 
say that these

people are merely a bunch of uneducated peasants.

For in that day, we will respond as Nehemiah did when he led his  people in 
rebuilding the city

walls, “The God of heaven will give us success. We his  servants will start 
rebuilding, but as for

you, you have no share in Jerusalem or any claim or historic right  to it." 
(Nehemiah 2:20).

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