The following is the speech of Freddy Lim, the vocalist of CHTHONIC and the chief of New Power Party.

Ladies and gentlemen, dear comrades, I am Freddy Lim.

I have never joined any political party, and I never expected that, the first party that I join would be a party which I participated in its creation. This is actually how my life has always been—I do whatever I feel like doing, if there’s something I don’t like, I don’t just criticize, I do it myself. Whether it’s forming a band, launch a record company, organize a music festival, or creating a venue for performance, if I want to do it, I start from scratch, it doesn’t matter if I have to start with one or two people, this is how I do things whether in Taiwan or around the world.

But establishing a political party is a bit different, it’s not something that can be started with one or two people, it’s a work that takes everyone in the nation to complete the job. Therefore, though I’ve been chosen by our founding members as the representative of the party, I am not the so-called party chairperson, rather, I am the chief executive of the “party founding team”. Starting with the 30 members in this “party founding team”, we will have 100,000 people to officially launch the party with us in two months, let’s work together to create a party of our time!

Looking back into the past few years, the social force has been active in Taiwan, with several demonstrations that attracted hundreds of thousands of people each. This progressive force—coming from different walks of life in the society—even instigated changes in local political environment through voting last year. Now, it’s time for this progressive force to change the nation at once.

Therefore, starting today, we will be in close contact with the people across the country—in front of temples, in coffee shops, in clubs, on the street, or on the Internet—we will pull together all these forces, we will have these people to vote for leaders in the party, and have the 100,000 people to nominate legislative candidates, we will turn the social force into political force, and make it “force of the time” to change Taiwan.

It may seem hard to have people from different backgrounds to work together to make a change, but in fact, the 30 founding members of the party include singers, film directors, farmers, lawyers, doctors, writers, fashion designers, photographers, and social activists. Some of them know nothing about politicians, and couldn’t recognize those stars in the Sunflower Movement. They joined the party only because they wanted to be part of something interesting, and to change Taiwan. So many people with a passion to change, that’s why we have confidence in Taiwan.

Just because this party is formed by people of different backgrounds, it will not overlook the rights of anyone living in Taiwan, regardless of their ethnicity, gender, age, occupation, income, education, sexual orientation, or class. This party will move forward while carrying the dreams of all.

I believe that, all Taiwanese have the right—or even obligation—to be part of the movement to create a party, to create a new age for Taiwan as a nation. Let’s make “republic” a verb, and let’s open a new age of equality and freedom.