President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday bowed and apologized to political dissidents and their families for the abuses of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government during the White Terror era, adding that he would handle such matters more delicately after some dissidents criticized the government for embellishing the Taiwan Human Rights Memorial Park with contentious art.
Speaking at the park’s opening ceremony yesterday morning, Ma said the location, which used to house the Jingmei military detention center, witnessed the development of democracy in Taiwan.
Ma also pledged to take more action to protect human rights.
PHOTO: CNA
“These human rights and democracy fighters played important roles in Taiwan’s history. I am here to give my sincerest apology to those victims who were wrongly accused and persecuted,” Ma said at the ceremony.
Taipei’s Jingmei military detention center was used to hold political dissidents during the White Terror era and after the Kaohsiung Incident in 1979 before they were sent to prison or to be executed.
The White Terror era covers the period when martial law was declared on May 19, 1949, and July 15, 1987, when it was lifted. The Kaohsiung Incident refers to Dec. 10, 1979, when the KMT government cracked down and imprisoned participants in an anti-government parade organized by Formosa Magazine.
Some of the dissidents and their family members, including former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) and Chen Chia-chun (陳嘉君), wife of former political prisoner Shih Ming-teh (施明德), were invited to attend the ceremony yesterday.
Chen was arrested on Thursday for trying to damage an art display to protest against what she said represented the government’s efforts to honor the old KMT regime. She criticized artist Yu Wen-fu (游文富) for commemorating Wang Hsi-ling (汪希苓), former head of the Military Intelligence Bureau, by displaying his work where Wang was kept under house arrest for ordering the murder of Chinese-American writer Henry Liu (劉宜良) in 1984.
Ma yesterday acknowledged the government’s lack of understanding and respect for the victims’ feelings and said he would ensure that such matters are handled more appropriately.
Chen Chia-chun left the ceremony immediately after Ma made his speech and remained critical of his administration.
“Ma says one thing and does another … The government wasted money and invited artists to commemorate a killer in the park. How is that supposed to make us, the victims and their families, feel?” she said.
Outside the ceremony, several protesters shouted “Ma Ying-jeou is not qualified to talk about human rights!” and protested against Ma’s participation at the ceremony.
After the ceremony, Lu, who was among those who were detained at the center, walked with Ma around the park and showed him the cell where she was held.
“If you have heard people praise Taiwan as a nation that protects human rights, you should feel ashamed because the regime you served failed to do that,” she told Ma.
“You were working in the Presidential Office when I was in prison … Human rights is not about lip service but countless lives,” she said.
Ma acknowledged that the then government was “inhumane” for refusing to allow Lu to attend the funeral service of her mother, adding that his administration would work harder to protect human rights and restore historical truths.
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