Calling the presidential poll next month a call for the public to wake up, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) yesterday urged the public to fulfill the dream of their ancestors to be the masters of their own land.
"If we lose, Taiwanese democracy will become a candle in the wind and extinguish at any moment," Hsieh said. "We cannot win if the people of Taiwan do not wake up and stand up to protect the dream of our forefathers."
Hsieh made the remarks at a DPP campaign rally last night at Zhongshan Soccer Stadium in Taipei to commemorate the 228 Incident.
Hsieh said the public must understand how and why their ancestors sacrificed their lives.
"None of the [past] rulers of Taiwan had ever obtained the approval of the Taiwanese people," he said. "Our ancestors were willing to sacrifice their lives to fight a foreign regime because they had the dream of being free, of being the master of this land. Their dream must be fulfilled. We cannot let a foreign regime or those who have not obtained the consent of the people govern."
A south-to-north march organized by the party also concluded in Taipei yesterday to mark the 61st anniversary of the massacre.
The 22-day, 500km south-to-north march, dubbed "Walk Against the Wind," kicked off at the lighthouse at the southern tip of Taiwan in Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Pingtung County, on Lunar New Year's Eve.
Led by former National Youth Commission chairwoman Cheng Li-chun (鄭麗君) and former DPP chairman Yu Shyi-kun, 228 youths met up with another group of marchers at the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall yesterday afternoon before continuing on to Zhongshan Soccer Stadium.
DPP vice presidential candidate Su Tseng-chang (
Although Ma said he cared about the families of victims of the 228 Incident, the KMT-controlled legislature has frozen 80 percent of the NT$1.5 billion budget for compensation to victims and other measures, Su said.
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
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