Former DPP chairman Lin I-hsiung (
The site, where the Yi-Kwang Presbyterian Church now stands, is where his six-year-old twin daughters and 60-year-old mother were murdered on Feb. 28, 1980.
Lin yesterday returned to the site on Hsin-yi Road with friends and church leaders who had gathered with him to commemorate the day.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
"It has been 22 years. I want to express my gratitude for those who have showed concern for us. Without the support from [these friends] we probably could not have continued on this path," Lin said.
Many of those attending the commemoration ceremony cried during Lin's speech.
To return his friends' love, Lin said, he had constantly encouraged his wife and his surviving daughter to lead meaningful and useful lives.
"I have tried very hard to carry on," he said. "To be one's own master and to control one's own destiny are the eternal desires of human beings, and democracy is the most significant system to help us realize this desire."
Under the sponsorship of the Chilin Foundation (
The museum exhibits documents, photos, newspapers, pamphlets, posters and T-shirts related to democracy movements.
Lin said the museum's aim is to generate determination among Taiwanese to consolidate the development of democracy.
Taiwan's history of democratic development has shown that the promotion of democracy is constantly challenged by relentless obstacles, according to Lin, and each conflict and effort to intimidate puts the existence of democracy in peril.
"Only by adhering firmly to democratic beliefs and resolving internal discord through democratic measures can crises be defused," he said.
Lin knows the cost of championing democracy all too well.
His daughters Liang-chun (亮均) and Ting-chun (亭均) and his mother Lin Yu Ah-mei (林游阿妹) were killed by a man, dressed in black, who broke into Lin's home while both Lin and his wife were away.
Lin was in jail -- he had been arrested on Dec. 13, 1979, for participating in a human-rights rally in Kaohsiung three days earlier. His wife, Fang Su-min (方素敏), was attending the public hearing into what was by then already called the Kaohsiung Incident (美麗島事件).
Lin's eldest daughter, Huan-chun (
The murderer has never been apprehended. However, Lin and many Taiwanese believe that the killings were politically motivated.
The murders -- on the anniversary of the 228 Incident (二二八事件), in which Taiwanese rebelling against KMT rule in 1947 were massacred -- rocked the nation.
The twins and their grandmother were not buried until Lin was released from jail in 1985.
After the murders, Fang and Huan-chun moved to the US to start a new life. Fang returned to Taiwan and ran in the 1983 Legislative Yuan elections in memory of the twins and Lin's mother.
"I don't know if [the murderer] is still alive now," Fang once said.
"But I don't hate him, because love is our best weapon."
Lin is revered by many Tai-wanese for transforming his personal sorrow into strength to struggle for the country's democracy.
The DPP came into power under his leadership, ending the KMT's five-decade-long rule after Chen Shui-bian (
Lin now spends much of his time running the Tzulin Cultural and Education Foundation, a pro-Taiwan political and environmental pressure group.
Huan-chun still lives in the US. She married an American in 1998 and her second child was born four days ago.
SEND A MESSAGE: Sinking the amphibious assault ship, the lead warship of its class, is meant to show China the US Navy is capable of sinking their ships, an analyst said The US and allied navies plan to sink a 40,000-tonne ship at the latest Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise to simulate defeating a Chinese amphibious assault on Taiwan. This year’s RIMPAC — the 29th iteration of the world’s largest naval exercise — involves the US, 28 partners, more than 25,000 personnel, 40 warships, three submarines and more than 150 aircraft operating in and around Hawaii from yesterday to Aug. 1, the US Navy said in a press release. The major components of the event include multidomain warfare exercises in multiship surface engagements, anti-submarine warfare and multi-axis defense of a carrier strike
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
The airspace around Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) is to be closed for an hour on July 25 and July 23 respectively, due to the Han Kuang military exercises, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The annual exercise is to be held on Taiwan proper and its outlying islands from July 22 to 26. During last year’s exercise, the military conducted anti-aircraft landing drills at the Taoyuan airport for the first time, for which a one-hour no-fly ban was issued. Based on a live-fire bulletin sent out by the Maritime and Port Bureau, the nation’s
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we