Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was magnanimous yesterday after having his face spat on during a memorial service at the Taipei 228 Memorial Museum for families of the victims of the 228 Incident.
Responding to reporters questions about the spitting incident, the mayor said, "I don't mind at all. I understand that some family members indeed feel the need to vent their decades-long grievances every year at this time. We should look upon this matter calmly and peacefully."
The 41-year-old man alleged to have spat on Ma, Tung Shu-chang (童旭昶) was immediately arrested by police and sent to the Taipei Prosecutors' Office on a charge of interfering with a public function. He was later released on NT$30,000 bail.
Members of the mayor's entourage told reporters that Tung was not a member of a victim's family.
Yesterday's memorial was the first to be managed by the city's Cultural Affairs Bureau which has just this year taken over responsibility for management of the event from the private sector.
Ma stressed the importance of compassion to the maintenance of ethnic harmony.
"For I know the pain they [228 victims and victims' families] bear is not something that can be completely eradicated by erecting a monument or awarding compensation," he said.
"Such angry feelings will continue to exist, but we must learn not to let them explode again and hurt the harmony between different ethnic groups."
Indeed the memorial service was marked by several incidents in which families of the victims lashed out at Ma, the KMT's star politician.
Some refused to accept Ma's good wishes or shake his hand.
An elderly man with the surname Chuang said, "We don't want to shake hands with him. His party made our lives miserable."
Ma, 53, was born three years after the 228 Incident, which happened 56 years ago.
The memorial ceremony got underway after the mayor and several victims' families delivered lilies to the monument to pay homage to the spirits of the victims.
A poetry recital by students, featuring Taiwanese poet Lee Ming-yung's (李敏勇) poem, Today, Let Us Plant A Tree, was dedicated to bringing tolerance, love and comfort to the victims and their families.
Speaking at the ceremony, Ma said, "It has been 56 years since the 228 Incident, but some families of the victims are still unable to put aside the traumatic memory of the tragedy.
"In addition to the government's various efforts to apologize to the families of victims, establish a memorial museum, make Feb. 28 a national memorial day and award compensation to persecuted families, finding out the truth about that episode in history is the most important thing," Ma said.
A survivor of the incident in his seventies, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, "The mayor is right. We must establish the truth. The KMT had no right to call us `mobs,' and [late president] Chiang Kai-shek (
The elderly victim had sustained a gunshot wound in one of his knees during the 228 Incident, at the age of 14.
"I was going to a movie that day and suddenly got shot. I was simply an innocent teenager who took no part in any uprising. My knee still can't bend normally to this day," he said.
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