Lin Yi-hsiung

Lin Yi-hsiung (Chinese: 林義雄), born 1941 in Ilan County, Taiwan, is a politician. He was a major leader of the democratization movement in Taiwan. He graduated from the Department of Law of National Taiwan University. He was elected legislator of Taiwan in 1977.

Kaohsiung involvement

Lin was arrested in December 1979 for his involvement in the Kaohsiung Incident. In February 28, 1980 Lin Yi-hsiung was in detention and beaten severely by the police. His mother saw him in prison and contacted the Amnesty International Osaka office. The next day Lin's mother and twin 7 year old daughters were stabbed to death. Lin's older daughter was badly wounded in his home. The authorities claimed to know nothing about it, even though his house was under 24 hour police surveillance.Roy, Denny. Taiwan: A Political History. [2003] (2003). Cornell University Press. ISBN 0801488052.]

Family

Only his eldest daughter, Huan-Jun, survived this murder which stunned Taiwan. There are no suspects to this day. In 1984, Lin left jail on parole, and went to Harvard University with his wife.

Huan-Jun (aka. Judy Linton), his daughter, also traveled to the United States, and married Rev. Joel Linton. [ [http://www.judylinton.com/judytest.html Judylinton.com] ]

Post incident career

Lin Yi-hsiung served as the 8th Chairman of Democratic Progressive Party (1998-2000) and successfully ran a campaign for Chen Shui-bian as the 10th President of the Republic of China. Immediately following Chen's election in May 2000, Lin demonstrated his unwillingness to share the spoils of victory in a surprising retirement from DPP's chairmanship. Citing Robert Frost's poem, he retired with the remark that he preferred to take "the road less travelled by".

Leaving all public and party posts behind him, Lin has been concerning himself with 'reform from outside (the centers of power)' as he campaigns for various issues of environmental justice and parliamentary reform, most importantly in mobilizing public support against nuclear power (2000) and for reducing the number of parliamentary seats by half (2004), both of which are detrimental to Chen's and DPP's hold on power.

On Jan 24 2006, Lin Yi-hsiung renounced membership of the Democratic Progressive Party of Taiwan. He said the elections of recent years had become partisan dogfights, resulting in national upheaval. He therefore had no intention of serving in the party's administration, nor of running for public office for the party. According to Lin Yi-hsiung, it was no longer meaningful to be a DPP member, and he has chosen to be a non-partisan citizen of his democratic country.

Despite this, Lin recently endorsed and campaigned for the Democratic Progressive Party's two candidates in the December 2006 mayoral elections. Lin went on the campaign trail for Frank Hsieh (candidate for Mayor of Taipei City) and Chen Chu (candidate for Mayor of Kaohsiung City), both of whom are long time friends of his. He states that despite all its vices, the Democratic Progressive Party still remains the most progressive party in Taiwan. [ [http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2006/12/07/2003339427 Taipeitimes.com] ]

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