President Chen Shui-bian (
Chen made the remarks at a commemorative ceremony marking the 59th anniversary of the 228 Incident. The event was held at the 228 Peace Park in Taipei yesterday afternoon.
"Over the past 20 years, some have tried to simplify, twist or even falsify the historical meaning of the incident, saying that it was a social uprising caused by government corruption," Chen said in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese). "But that is not true. It is a false history fabricated for political purposes."
PHOTO: CHANG CHUNG-YI, TAIPEI TIMES
The nature of the incident, Chen said, was "a systematic slaughter and organized suppression of Taiwanese people." It was carried out by "a foreign administration and authoritarian regime to consolidate its power."
The incident, he said, "completely violated democracy and human rights" and "suppressed and persecuted the people of Taiwan in a bid to serve the interests of one individual and one party."
"We can forgive this atrocity, but we must not forget and we must find out the truth of the matter so justice can be served and lessons can be learned," he said. "Only by knowing the tragic past can we prevent such a tragedy from happening again."
Other senior political figures including Vice President Annette Lu (
Chen's remarks were an apparent response to recent comments from Ma and his party.
Ma has said that it was the actions of local government officials who pushed the people into rebelling rather than the KMT as a whole or Chiang, then KMT chairman and commander-in-chief of the armed forces.
Ma, who spoke at the event before Chen, yesterday expressed the hope to see a national memorial museum inaugurated next year.
Ma, who spoke in broken Hoklo, was heckled by the audience, with some calling him "a slave of China" and others chanting "long live the Republic of Taiwan."
Lu said that she would like to launch a campaign to promote "good hearts, good people and good Taiwan" with the goal to build a "perpetually good Taiwan."
"We want to know more about the truth, not falsify the truth. We want true feelings, not fake ones," Lu said.
In 1995, then president Lee Teng-hui (
During his stint as Taipei mayor, Chen renamed Taipei's New Park as 228 Peace Park in 1996 and helped establish the Taipei 228 Memorial Museum in 1997. The day Feb. 28 was also approved by the Cabinet that year as a national holiday.
In August 2003, Chen, in his capacity as president, presented the first batch of national certificates to families of victims to clear the names of their loved ones killed or jailed because of the incident.
Starting this year, flags will fly at half mast on Feb. 28 out of respect for the victims of the tragedy.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
RSS