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DPP urges Ma to make public KMT records on 228

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus on Friday accused the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of being "two-faced" on the 228 Incident of 1947.

DPP caucus whip William Lai (賴清德) said Ma's words had not matched his actions on matters related to the 228 Incident, in which tens of thousands were massacred in a crackdown by the KMT regime.

Lai said although Ma had said the KMT should bear responsibility for the 228 Incident and had promised to apologize to the relatives of the victims, he still had not made public KMT documents on the massacre, adding that the party had frozen the budget for the 228 Memorial Foundation.

In response to Ma's remarks that the truth behind the 228 Incident should be revealed, DPP Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) said "the truth of the matter is that the KMT doesn't want to face reality."

Many innocent people, including the elite members of society, were blacklisted and consequently victimized, she said, while calling on Ma to publicize the party's records to see who compiled the blacklists that led to so much pain and suffering.

She also urged the KMT to use its assets to compensate relatives of the victims to help bring them peace and closure.

DPP Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) told the same press conference that KMT lawmakers had obstructed the budget for the Statute for the Handling of and Compensation for the 228 Incident and had frozen NT$300 million (US$9.7 million) of the 228 foundation's budget.

Lin also rejected Ma's claim that the Cabinet was at fault for listing the budget for the 228 foundation under the Ministry of Education instead of the Ministry of the Interior.

She said that as the foundation's role was to strengthen public education about the 228 Incident, the budget was listed under the education ministry.

Additional reporting by Rich Chang
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