Tuesday, March 03, 2015

The New Power Party Speaks

Missing the mountains of Pingtung.

UPDATE: Solidaritytw has the translation of Freddy Lim's candidacy announcement. Thinking Taiwan has Hung's here. Thanks to anon below!

UPDATE II: Thinking Taiwan has a post on their platform

On Sunday afternoon I dropped by the Taichung Thinkers Corner to listen to Freddy Lim and Hung Tz-yung, sister of the Corporal Hung whose death at the hands of his military masters provoked massive protests in Taipei, speak about their new political party, the New Power (ๆ™‚ไปฃๅŠ›้‡) Party. Freddy Lim is best known as the leader of the metal band Chthonic, but he is also a passionate advocate of things Taiwan.

Lim did most of the talking, discussing how getting into politics necessitated overcoming of the fear of politics. How no one talks about politics for fear of being criticized. He said he had to persuade Hung to enter politics, but really, in a way when he presented his arguments to her, he was persuading himself.

Of the two I was more impressed with Hung. Lim is a seasoned performer and comfortable with people and crowds. Hung is an obvious novice, yet see she did very well. She spoke without hesitation or backtracking, sharp and very strong and articulate. She seemed an authentic Taiwan woman, strong and purposeful, radicalized by the brutality of the State that killed her brother and then punished only the underlings for it. She was dressed in a very down-home Taiwanese way, a dull pink sweater top that was just a shade younger than something old Auntie might wear.

Lim said that the plan to focus on international relations and Taiwan's space, military law, and indigenous rights, among others. Also culture and education.

They are a good example of some of the changes that are sweeping across Taiwan, which hopefully several of us will be writing more on in the coming weeks. Things are percolating rapidly here...

Below READ MORE are images of the handouts they presented at the meeting, with bios and pics of the party's total of four candidates and the party manifesto, all in Chinese.



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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Valuable post, thank you for this. Their success is not guaranteed of course but their conviction is part of the wider, crucial push to replenish Taiwanese governance and build national identity...thus strengthening national security after years of outright neglect.

Mike Fagan said...

"She was dressed in a very down-home Taiwanese way, a dull pink sweater top that was just a shade younger than something old Auntie might wear.
"


As endlessly fascinating as that is, couldn't you just report in more detail what she actually said?

Anonymous said...

Appendix: their campaign announcements:

Hung Tzu-yung: http://thinking-taiwan.com/a-bold-commitment-to-uphold-justice/

Freddy Lim: http://solidaritytw.tumblr.com/post/112586535311/chthonic-singer-freddy-lims-announcement-of-his

Michael Turton said...

As endlessly fascinating as that is, couldn't you just report in more detail what she actually said?

Wish she had actually said a lot. But she didn't say very much. Most of the policy stuff was addressed by Freddy Lim.

In any case I was more interested in what she seemed like and how she presented herself.

Michael