Writer, historian and former legislator Li Ao (李敖) yesterday lashed out at President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) for what he said was his administration’s inactivity in righting the “rewritten” history of the country’s White Terror era by the former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government.
“Ma is just another better-looking [former president] Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁),” Li said.
Li’s criticism of Ma, as well as Chen, centered on what he said was their use of history as a tool for political gain and failure to reveal historical truths.
Almost all things displayed at the Taiwan Human Rights Memorial Park are about the Kaohsiung Incident (美麗島事件), Li said, referring to the arrest of dissidents following a rally held by the pro-democracy Formosa Magazine (美麗島雜誌) on Dec. 10, 1979. The rally was called to urge the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime to respect human rights and demand democracy.
“Official records said there were 29,407 political cases processed by the military court during the White Terror era, and that is believed to be underestimated. But now, it seems that there was only one case — the Formosa Incident,” Li said.
After paying a visit on Friday to the site of the park — Taipei’s former Jingmei military detention center — which was used to detain and try political dissidents before sending them to prison or execution from the late 1960s to the 1980s, Li said that he found the same problems in the 228 Memorial Museum.
“There aren’t many displays related to the 228 Incident as there was nothing [of the incident] left from then ... There were some cigarette cases, some Japanese helmets. They really made a mess of history,” Li said.
The 228 Incident refers to the uprising in 1947 against the government, which began when a female vendor refused to turn over black market cigarettes to an official a little over a years after the KMT took over Taiwan after Japanese colonial rule.
Li added that the voice recording of Chen Yi (陳儀), the executive administrator at the time, displayed in the museum was not a real tape of his voice, but rather a recording of a Mainlander with a Zhejiang Province accent.
The 228 Memorial Museum and the Taiwan Human Rights Memorial Park were both established by Chen Shui-bian and the display format remains by and large the same since Ma took office.
Li was held in the Jingmei military detention center in the 1970s.
Li said that many Chinese Communist Party members came to Taiwan from China during that period but that their history is rarely addressed.
Li said Ma didn’t dare reveal the historical truth because he doesn’t have the courage to pursue justice if doing so would anger anyone.
“All he can do is to apologize and apologize,” Li said.
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