Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) do not have genuine concern for the 228 Incident, nor are they willing to seek the truth regarding its atrocities, an executive at an advocacy group said on Friday.
“Ma and Chiang Wan-an speak about their concern for victims and of their regret for what happened, but it is all for show,” Taiwan 228 Care Association chairman Wang Wen-hong (王文宏) said in response to a speech Ma gave earlier in the day.
“They only talk superficially about the events of the 228 Massacre, but have never offered a genuine apology,” Wang said.
Photo: CNA
On Friday, Ma attended an event in Taipei to commemorate the work of democracy advocate Liao Chin-ping (廖進平), who was arrested in the capital in the aftermath of the 228 Incident in 1947 and was apparently executed by the then-KMT government.
In a speech, Ma touted his work to bring justice and compensation to people who were killed in the 228 Incident and their families.
“It is popular to speak of ‘transitional justice’ today, but I started work three decades ago to deliver justice for those who were killed, and for their families to receive compensation,” Ma said.
“In doing so, we helped make great strides to promote harmony among ethnic groups, to ensure peace and stability in society,” he said.
Ma said that when he was minister of justice from 1993 to 1996 and Taipei mayor from 1998 to 2006, he was a member of the Executive Yuan’s 228 Incident Taskforce, which implemented statutes to compensate people affected by the 228 Incident and address situations of wrongful imprisonment from that time.
Later, he helped establish the Memorial Foundation of 228, he said.
However, Wang said that Ma represents the former KMT regime.
He upholds the party’s colonial oppression, which has denied freedom and human rights since the KMT lost the Chinese Civil War and began its illegal military occupation of Taiwan, Wang said.
“Ma, Chiang and the KMT have never held the party’s previous leaders responsible, including Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and other officials and military commanders, for the killings, torture and other atrocities inflicted upon innocent Taiwanese,” Wang said.
“Many people are still seeking the truth about their family members,” he said. “They want to know who ordered the killings, who the murderers were — the executioners — but Ma, Chiang Wan-an and the party always say to forgive and forget, and that people must look ahead and let go of the past.”
“The KMT persists in efforts to hide or destroy documents to conceal the party’s dark past from the public,” he said.
Wang was born in 1947. His father was a city councilor in Kaohsiung who tried to mediate between civilians and the KMT’s military forces, but was killed by KMT troops 32 days after Wang was born.
Chiang Wan-an is proud of his status as a purported member of the fourth generation of the Chiang political dynasty, but he has not shown remorse or apologized for the deaths of tens of thousands of Taiwanese by KMT military officials and their troops from China, Wang said.
“One of the Taiwan 228 Care Association’s requests is that the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei be permanently closed, and that the statues of Chiang Kai-shek and [his son, former president] Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) be removed from Cihu (慈湖) in Taoyuan’s Dasi District (大溪),” he said.
“Moreover, the embalmed bodies of the two should be buried,” he added.
These steps would show that the KMT is serious about coming to terms with its past and restoring a semblance of justice for those who died and their families, he said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
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
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS