President-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) should expose the identities and actions of White Terror perpetrators after she assumes office on May 20, human rights campaigners and survivors of the White Terror era said yesterday.
Transitional justice is possible only when the responsibility of White Terror perpetrators is investigated, Formosan Political Prisoners Association honorary director-general Tsai Kuan-yu (蔡寬裕) said.
Chang Chiu-wu (張秋梧), a family member of a White Terror victim, said the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) must acknowledge its wrongdoing in its past actions and obtain the forgiveness of victims’ relatives.
“Tsai Ing-wen’s administration will need to be prepared to invest substantial resources in her proposed Truth and Reconciliation Commission for it to succeed,” said Huang Chang-lin (黃長玲), an associate professor of political science at National Taiwan University and former Taiwan Association for Truth and Reconciliation chairperson.
“Researching historical archives of the White Terror era is a daunting task and would require the Tsai administration to dedicate substantial resources to its proposed truth and reconciliation commission,” she added.
Huang said that the truth and reconciliation commission would need to clarify its role and function within existing government institutions, because there are many models for transitional justice organizations that have been used by governments around the world.
“Taiwanese have yet to acquire a deep understanding of history, which would only be made possible by a thorough examination of historical archives,” Huang said.
That controversy still surrounds former president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) role in the 228 Incident, even though he commanded supreme political power during the massacre, suggests that the public “do not have an adequate knowledge of the White Terror system of government,” Huang said, adding that many ellipses continue to plague historical reconstructions of the events.
The 228 Incident refers to the crackdown launched by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime against civilian demonstrations following an incident in Taipei on Feb. 27, 1947. The event also marked the beginning of the White Terror era that saw thousands of Taiwanese arrested, imprisoned and executed.
Chang said that many issues related to the 228 Incident remain unresolved.
“For example, the number of people slain during the massacre continues to be disputed, there is no unambiguous acknowledgment of Chiang Kai-shek’s culpability, and the KMT has not been made to apologize for the White Terror era,” Chang said, rejecting President Ma Ing-jeou’s (馬英九) apology on behalf of the government as “phony.”
“The victims’ families have a right to expect an apology from the KMT as a political party,” she added.
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