Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (
To work toward reconciliation with 228 survivors and family members of those who were killed, Ma yesterday presented flowers to them at the 228 Incident monument in 228 Memorial Park, Chiayi County.
He pledged to compile autobiographies of the victims, establish a national 228 memorial park and continue research into the crackdown if elected.
BLOCKED BUDGET
In response to pan-green camp criticism over the KMT's obstruction of the budget for the Statute for the Handling of and Compensation for the 228 Incident (
Declining to respond to follow-up questions, Ma said the pan-green camp should not politicize the issue.
Ma acknowledged the KMT's "political" responsibility for the 228 Incident, but added that the violent crackdown should be remembered today with tolerance and compassion.
NEW ERA
Ma said that more people look on the events of that day in 1947 with tolerance and forgiveness. The commemoration of the incident should enter a new era and the public should work together to ensure that future generations have a profound understanding of the 228 Incident, tempered by love and tolerance.
"Families of the victims can choose whether to forgive the government or not. As we [the KMT] face mistakes made in the past, however, we have no choice but to recognize our mistakes and apologize," he said.
The memory of "the incident is very painful for many people and recognizing historical mistakes and offering apologies aren't enough," Ma said. "Only by helping future generations remember this historical event can we prevent similar mistakes from happening."
The KMT and Ma's campaign team also held a 228 remembrance concert last night at Chungshan Hall in Taipei City and arranged blood donation collection efforts around the country.
Ma's spokesman Tsai Shih-ping (
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
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