Tomorrow marks the 62nd anniversary of the 228 Incident, a tragic chapter in Taiwan’s history that six decades later still divides opinion, and one that will continue to do so until the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) makes a genuine effort to make amends for the crimes it committed during the incident and its protracted aftermath.
As usual, the KMT’s attempts at reconciliation have been left to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who after several years of trying to build bridges with victims’ families can now show his face at memorial events without too much controversy.
Attending as president for the first time, Ma on Wednesday went further than ever before when, at a meeting with Taiwan 228 Association members, he said that dictator Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) was responsible for the tragedy.
Even the apparent progress reflected in this admission is questionable, as it contradicts Ma’s comments from two years ago, when defending Chiang, he said “the decision-maker during the incident was not the party’s chairman.”
But it is still hard not to question Ma’s sincerity, when on the one hand he continues his courtship of 228 victims and their families, while on the other he persists in paying annual homage to the incident’s architect on the anniversary of his death. Ma’s argument that historical figures should not be judged by a single event just doesn’t wash.
Ma cannot have his 228 memorial cake and eat it.
Inconsistencies aside, it should be recognized that Ma at least makes an effort to promote reconciliation, even if his words are seldom backed up with action. This is more than can be said for the other ranking members of his party, who are conspicuous by their absence at this time of year.
The families of 228 victims are on the whole a retiring bunch: They do not bay for blood or seek retribution. Many would just like to know exactly what happened to their relatives and who was responsible for their deaths, as such information would help them fill in the gaps and close this tragic chapter in their family histories once and for all.
Yesterday’s release of previously unseen papers is a start, but the KMT also needs to give unhindered access to its party archives and make every document related to 228 available for public scrutiny.
The dilemma the party faces is that doing so would implicate certain party demagogues who remain popular with many Taiwanese, notably Ma’s mentor and former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), who played a key role in collecting and passing on information about dissidents following the incident.
For this and many other reasons, such documents will likely never see the light of day, and the KMT will remain in an awkward position each spring as the opposition makes capital out of the KMT’s reluctance to clean the 228 skeletons from its closet.
Meanwhile, Ma will continue indefinitely with his annual balancing act as he attempts to tiptoe between the minefields of Taiwanese sentiment and KMT arrogance.
On May 7, 1971, Henry Kissinger planned his first, ultra-secret mission to China and pondered whether it would be better to meet his Chinese interlocutors “in Pakistan where the Pakistanis would tape the meeting — or in China where the Chinese would do the taping.” After a flicker of thought, he decided to have the Chinese do all the tape recording, translating and transcribing. Fortuitously, historians have several thousand pages of verbatim texts of Dr. Kissinger’s negotiations with his Chinese counterparts. Paradoxically, behind the scenes, Chinese stenographers prepared verbatim English language typescripts faster than they could translate and type them
More than 30 years ago when I immigrated to the US, applied for citizenship and took the 100-question civics test, the one part of the naturalization process that left the deepest impression on me was one question on the N-400 form, which asked: “Have you ever been a member of, involved in or in any way associated with any communist or totalitarian party anywhere in the world?” Answering “yes” could lead to the rejection of your application. Some people might try their luck and lie, but if exposed, the consequences could be much worse — a person could be fined,
Xiaomi Corp founder Lei Jun (雷軍) on May 22 made a high-profile announcement, giving online viewers a sneak peek at the company’s first 3-nanometer mobile processor — the Xring O1 chip — and saying it is a breakthrough in China’s chip design history. Although Xiaomi might be capable of designing chips, it lacks the ability to manufacture them. No matter how beautifully planned the blueprints are, if they cannot be mass-produced, they are nothing more than drawings on paper. The truth is that China’s chipmaking efforts are still heavily reliant on the free world — particularly on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing
Keelung Mayor George Hsieh (謝國樑) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on Tuesday last week apologized over allegations that the former director of the city’s Civil Affairs Department had illegally accessed citizens’ data to assist the KMT in its campaign to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) councilors. Given the public discontent with opposition lawmakers’ disruptive behavior in the legislature, passage of unconstitutional legislation and slashing of the central government’s budget, civic groups have launched a massive campaign to recall KMT lawmakers. The KMT has tried to fight back by initiating campaigns to recall DPP lawmakers, but the petition documents they
RSS