Freddy Lim Restates His Position of Taiwan's Independence in First Interpellation

Translated and compiled by Shin-wei Chang

As the former front man of Taiwan heavy metal band Chthonic, Freddy Lim was elected into the Legislature of Taiwan on January 16. Bloomberg described him as “a loud new voice on the political stage.” Other media platforms say Lim represents the new generation that grew up with democracy.

Each legislator has to participate in a legislative committee, and Lim joined the National Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee of the parliament. On February 23, he stepped to the podium for interpellation for the first time. During his interpellation, Lim focused on three points: cross-strait relations, transitional justice and the aboriginal issue aroused by Taiwanese local film, “David Loman 2.”

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Lim says the “Consensus of 1992” proposed by the Ma government, has failed to achieve real “mutual respect.” If it had, there should be teams of “Chinese Beijing” and “Chinese Taipei” in the Olympics. After that, Lim publicly stated his position of supporting “Taiwan’s independence, ” pointing out that if the government follows the Constitution of the Republic of China, then the government would be supporting “ROC’s independence.”

In response, Chang Shan-cheng, premier of the Executive Yuan, said the government insisted on using “Chinese Taipei” when proposing to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). As for the name for our national teams when participating in international events, Chang said it’s the organizer’s right to make decisions, not the country.

In addition to cross-strait relations, Lim criticized the government for not achieving transitional justice. He said the government should investigate and find out the truth, and take the society to a state of justice and public interest.

Lim said, on February 23, 1938, the ROC government attacked Taipei with more than 280 bombs, which is not written in textbooks. Ironically, the government fled to Taiwan after they lost in the war. Lim called for the Ma government to fulfill transitional justice in Taiwanese history before handing the regime over to the new government.

The Taiwanese movie “David Loman 2” recently aroused controversy over indigenous issues because certain lines in the movie were taken as discrimination against the Tao tribe.

Lim says the “Protection Act for The Traditional Intellectual Creations of Indigenous Peoples" has already been passed for eight years, but there is only one case to it. Not only few citizens know about the act, but the government also fails to obey it. For example, Taiwanese passports issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have an image of a traditional Tao fish boat printed in them. However, the government did not ask for permission to use the image.

While the government says it did, Lim said the case is about the traditional indigenous pattern in the image. If the creator of the pattern did not give permission, the ministry might violate the “Protection Act for The Traditional Intellectual Creations of Indigenous Peoples.”

As a result, Lim appealed to the government to draft a law for the autonomy and anti-discrimination of the indigenous peoples and fully implement “The Indigenous Peoples Basic Law.”

Edited by Olivia Yang

Sources:
“Death Metal Singer Rocks the Taiwan Vote” (Bloomberg)
“Meet Freddy Lim, the death metal star running for political office in Taiwan” (CNN)
Apple Daily
Liberty Times
CNA
Liberty Times