Six students and a faculty member at National Kaohsiung Normal University yesterday shaved their heads as a gesture of support for former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Lin I-hsiung’s (林義雄) ongoing hunger strike in protest against the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮).
The event was organized by Graduate Institute of Gender Education (GIGE) student Chen Chen-hao (陳振豪), Department of Biotechnology student Chen Wei (陳蔚), Department of Fine Arts student Chen Kuan-yu (陳冠宇) and Graduate Institute of Interdisciplinary Art student Kan Chih-yu (甘志雨).
The event was held in response to a campaign initiated by anti-nuclear advocates days after Lin began fasting on Tuesday last week, which urged people to shave their heads as a non-violent protest against the construction and operation of the plant.
Photo: CNA
“The government has sat back and watched while Lin starves himself to the point that he had to be rushed to a hospital for medical treatment [on Monday]. It also tried to use a resolution reached among lawmakers last week to trick the people,” Chen Chen-hao said.
“That is why I have urged everyone to take action to save the nation... The abolition of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant is the path the nation must take,” he said.
Chen Chen-hao was referring to a resolution reached during a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus meeting on Thursday, which stipulates that “no fuel rods will be installed after the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant is completed and passes pre-operational safety checks, until its fate is decided by a national referendum.”
Although the resolution appeared to be a concession by the KMT caucus, opposition lawmakers thought otherwise, saying that the resolution they approved in February last year required the plant’s construction being halted indefinitely until a plebiscite was held.
Chen Wei and Chen Kuan-yu said they were so touched by Lin’s determination to wake up the government at the cost of his life that they decided to show their support for him by shaving their heads.
Kan, who used to have long hair, said that although his hair was quite important to him, it was even more important to express his anti-nuclear stance.
GIGE associate professor Yang Chia-ling (楊佳羚) also joined in yesterday, saying that her seven-year-old daughter supported her decision and even offered to draw an antinuclear emblem on the back of her head.
GIGE students Chu Ya-chun (朱雅君) and Huang Fu-chi (黃富琪), who decided at the last minute to have their heads shaved, said what they did was nothing compared with Lin’s fasting campaign.
“What really matters is not our hair, but Taiwan’s democracy,” they said.
The students urged the public to support a referendum petition drive initiated by the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union to abolish the nuclear power plant.
The drive yesterday reached the 100,000-signature threshold needed for the first stage of calling a referendum.
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