Only under a democratic system, in which the public is sovereign, can a nation prevent the state apparatus from harming its citizens, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday at an event to mark the 79th anniversary of the 228 Incident at the National 228 Incident Memorial Ceremony in Kaohsiung.
The 228 Incident refers to a crackdown launched by the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime against civilian demonstrators following an incident in Taipei on Feb. 27, 1947.
It marked the beginning of what is known as the 228 Massacre and led to the White Terror era, which saw thousands of Taiwanese arrested, imprisoned and executed.
Photo: Lee Hui-chou, Taipei Times
China has attempted to annex Taiwan using various methods, Lai said.
As president, his primary mission is to protect the people, unite political blocs and the public, avoid regressing, and ensure that the public has the right to decide its future, he said.
“While peace is invaluable, it must be grounded in ideals, not illusions,” he said. “Only peace backed by strength is true peace. Surrendering sovereignty under the guise of peace talks to advance unification is not real peace. It would only suppress democracy, harm human rights and lead to endless problems.”
The Restoration of Victims’ Rights Infringed by Illegal Acts of the State During the Period of Authoritarian Rule Foundation last year issued more than 1,500 honorary recovery certificates, Lai said, adding that the certificates are part of the government’s effort to deliver delayed justice and fairness to the people who died in the White Terror and their families.
The Ministry of Culture has begun a review process to preserve more “locations of transitional justice significance,” he said, adding that the site of the Lin (林) family murders in what is today Gikong Presbyterian Church in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) has been approved as one of the sites.
The Lin family murders refers to the killings of the mother and twin daughters of political activist Lin I-hsiung (林義雄) at their home on Feb. 28, 1980, while Lin was imprisoned over the pro-democracy Kaohsiung Incident.
The murders are one of the most high-profile homicide cases in modern Taiwanese history and is unsolved.
Lai devoted part of his speech to the issue of historical records that could help uncover the truth behind the Lin family murders, an apparent response to controversy surrounding an unreleased film about the case, titled Murder of the Century (世紀血案).
The National Security Bureau last month declassified more than 50,000 martial law-era political records, he said, adding that the material was identified after the bureau spent 16 months manually sorting through more than 1 million archival records.
Combined with archives declassified since Taiwan’s first transition of power in 2000, the bureau has transferred 140,000 unredacted political records to the National Archives Administration for public review, Lai said.
However, “archives about the Lin family case are incomplete and much of the oral history has proven unreliable or fabricated,” he said.
“That intelligence files could be so brazenly and systematically destroyed during the one-party-state era raises the question: Who had the power to destroy the records? Who could have ordered intelligence units to obstruct the judicial investigation? Only the government in power had that kind of authority,” he said.
Separately yesterday, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) spoke during a memorial service at Gikong Presbyterian Church to mark the 46th anniversary of the Lin family murders, stressing the importance of understanding history.
“Understanding the past gives us the strength to face the future and cherish this land more deeply. It is our responsibility to safeguard this path of democracy — one paved with lives, blood and tears,” she said.
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