President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday promised to uncover the truth behind the 228 Incident and said the government should apologize for its past mistakes to eliminate hatred in society.
“I believe we should face the 228 Incident and history, and focus discussions on the issue itself. We should eliminate the hatred and feel sympathy for each other,” Ma said yesterday when attending a symposium at Academia Sinica.
“The truth should be made public, regardless of the controversy it may cause. [Revealing the truth] gives families of the victims the justice they deserve and is what a responsible government should do,” Ma said.
Ma said the government began its efforts to acknowledge the mistakes and offer public apologies over the incident under former president Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) administration, and he expected the government’s acknowledgment of its mistakes to bring social reconciliation.
Several family members of those murdered, however, erupted into a war of words shortly after Ma left.
Lin Li-tsai (林黎彩), a 228 victim family member, condemned the organizers for refusing to let her inside the symposium during Ma’s speech. She also urged the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to return its party assets to the public.
Lin’s remarks were not welcomed by other participants, who urged her not to politicize the issue.
Also yesterday, Ma reaffirmed that the government would continue to support the operations of the 228 Memorial Foundation.
Last month, the legislature passed a motion proposed by KMT Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) to cancel the NT$300 million (US$8.6 million) budget for the 228 Memorial Foundation, saying that the Act for Handling and Compensation for the 228 Incident (二二八事件賠償及處理條例), which created the foundation, was a temporary law and should have been abolished seven years after it’s enactment in 1995.
Hung’s move met with strong criticism from pan-green politicians and 228 victims’ families.
“The 228 Memorial Foundation is not only about handing out compensation — it is also researching the incident’s history and educating people about it,” Ma said at a ceremony to inaugurate a special exhibition at the Taipei 228 Memorial Museum. “Therefore, the foundation’s operations should continue.”
“As most of the survivors of the 228 Incident have passed away, it’s time for us to find out the facts about the 228 Incident without the involvement of personal emotions,” Ma said.
Ma also said that he would keep his campaign promise to establish a national 228 memorial museum.
“But this should be done only after a law is created to provide a legal basis for the museum’s budget,” he said.
SEE EDITORIAL ON PAGE 8
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
RSS