Rock star-turned-politician named Taiwan's representative to Finland

Taipei, May 19 (CNA) Former ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker Freddy Lim (林昶佐), a Taiwanese rock singer-turned-politician, has been named by President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) as Taiwan's representative to Finland, the Presidential Office said Monday.

Earlier Monday, Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the appointment of Lim, a national legislator from 2016 to 2024 and founder of the rock band Chthonic, recognized Lim's efforts in human rights diplomacy and experience in international exchanges.

His post is a special diplomatic appointment that will not affect promotions of career diplomats in the country, Lin said.

While Lim's appointment, which had been reported by local news media last week, has been criticized as partisan patronage, Lin said the appointment puts the right person in the right spot.

Lim, 49, said on his Facebook page that during his tenure as a lawmaker on the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Legislative Yuan, he tried his best to push for congressional diplomacy and Taiwan's international participation.

Lim said his eight years of experience in the Legislature helped him forge close ties with his counterparts in the European Union and North Europe that he will take advantage of to strengthen exchanges between Taiwan and Finland.

As a lawmaker, Lim said, he also pushed for Taiwan's participation in the international Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) and the Open Government Partnership (OGP), a multilateral initiative to promote open government and combat corruption.

Through his efforts, Lim said, Taiwan's Legislative Yuan successfully participated in the OGP summit.

Lim said he also attended the Copenhagen Democracy Summit in Denmark and the Oslo Freedom Forum in Norway on behalf of Taiwan to share Taiwan's experience in democracy and seek more international support for Taiwan.

Lim was elected to lead the Amnesty International Taiwan in 2010 and he stepped down in 2014.

He said that during his years at Amnesty International Taiwan, he worked with the organization's chapters in Finland, Germany, Sweden and Australia to advocate issues such as human rights, gender equality and protection of the underprivileged.

Once he assumes his new post, there will be no way to magically guarantee that diplomatic initiatives will succeed, but he pledged to try hard and do his job, Lim said.

Lim, who co-founded the opposition New Power Party (NPP) in 2015, was elected an NPP lawmaker in 2016. Lim withdrew from the NPP in 2019, and got reelected as an independent legislator in 2020.

In March 2023, Lin announced he would not seek reelection as he had to take care of a family member who was suffering from a rare disease. He joined the ruling DPP in November 2023.

In 1995 in his second year at college, as he began identifying more strongly with Taiwanese identity, Lim set up Chthonic, which has been dubbed "the Black Sabbath of Asia."

In 2020, The Guardian described Chthonic as "cultural ambassadors for Taiwan -- its history, myths and struggles."