Society has not done enough to hold the perpetrators of the 228 Massacre responsible for their behavior, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday during his speech at the launch of the 228 Incident and International Human Rights Exhibition in Taipei, urging perpetrators to demonstrate restraint to avoid deepening the agony they have caused to families of the victims.
Referring to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime before its defeat in the Chinese Civil War as “China” throughout his speech, Ko said Taiwanese were jubilant when it was announced that they were to reunite with “China” after World War II.
However, because of the rampant corruption among Republic of China officials and a lack of discipline among the troops dispatched to Taiwan, the public was disillusioned, which gave rise to a string of conflicts between the masses and the government, Ko said, adding that this was the historical context of the 228 Massacre.
Photo: CNA
Ko said that a conundrum facing the 228 Incident and all efforts to promote transitional justice is that all the attention has been focused on to the victims, while the victimizers remain hidden.
“Maybe it was because of Taiwanese’ forgiving nature, we have not been very enthusiastic about holding the perpetrators responsible. Hence, there has been a strange phenomenon in which no condemnations have been made of the perpetrators. To this day, there is a lack of consensus on who the perpetrators were,” he said.
“The actual death toll [in the 228 Massacre] remains unclear,” he said.
Referring to his grandfather, Ko Shih-yuan (柯世元), who died from injuries sustained during beatings by KMT authorities, Ko said: “As a family member of a victim, we have, to a large extent, shown humility not because we are weak, but because of the confidence we have demonstrated by being strong.”
“We are willing to forgive the perpetrators, but we would like to ask them to show restraint,” Ko said.
Referencing criticism former KMT chairman Lien Chan’s (連戰) leveled against him — when Lien called him an “imperial subject” of the Japanese emperor — Ko said such remarks only served to agonize his father, who was an elementary-school teacher and a public servant during the Japanese colonial era.
Ko said he grew up in a time when it was yet another ruler from outside Taiwan that dominated the nation.
“When I was little, I used to praise the Three Principles of the People and [former] president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國). When I took the joint college entrance examination, the Three Principles of the People was a subject that was assigned the same weighting as English and mathematics,” he said.
However, Ko said that as he grew older, he “cringed” at the sight on national television of civilians made to wear funeral clothes and mourn the death of Chiang outside his mausoleum.
“I often say that victimizers need to show restraint, because some of their actions not only made people cringe, but also irritate them,” he said.
Citing the 228 Massacre, China’s Tiananmen Square Massacre and South Korea’s Gwangju Uprising as examples, Ko said that a nation’s development can be gauged by how it deals with the aftermath of brutal crackdowns perpetrated by the authorities.
The exhibition is a means through which Taiwanese can review a time in the nation’s history, he said.
“We do not aim to incite hatred, but to make facts clearer. Hopefully, in this process we will learn to show more tolerance toward one another, so that we can strive for a common future,” he said.
Three batches of banana sauce imported from the Philippines were intercepted at the border after they were found to contain the banned industrial dye Orange G, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. From today through Sept. 2 next year, all seasoning sauces from the Philippines are to be subject to the FDA’s strictest border inspection, meaning 100 percent testing for illegal dyes before entry is allowed, it said in a statement. Orange G is an industrial coloring agent that is not permitted for food use in Taiwan or internationally, said Cheng Wei-chih (鄭維智), head of the FDA’s Northern Center for
LOOKING NORTH: The base would enhance the military’s awareness of activities in the Bashi Channel, which China Coast Guard ships have been frequenting, an expert said The Philippine Navy on Thursday last week inaugurated a forward operating base in the country’s northern most province of Batanes, which at 185km from Taiwan would be strategically important in a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Northern Luzon Command Commander Lieutenant General Fernyl Buca as saying that the base in Mahatao would bolster the country’s northern defenses and response capabilities. The base is also a response to the “irregular presence this month of armed” of China Coast Guard vessels frequenting the Bashi Channel in the Luzon Strait just south of Taiwan, the paper reported, citing a
The Chinese military has built landing bridge ships designed to expand its amphibious options for a potential assault on Taiwan, but their combat effectiveness is limited due to their high vulnerability, a defense expert said in an analysis published on Monday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said that the deployment of such vessels as part of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s East Sea Fleet signals a strong focus on Taiwan. However, the ships are highly vulnerable to precision strikes, which means they could be destroyed before they achieve their intended
UNDER PRESSURE: The report cited numerous events that have happened this year to show increased coercion from China, such as military drills and legal threats The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) aims to reinforce its “one China” principle and the idea that Taiwan belongs to the People’s Republic of China by hosting celebratory events this year for the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the “retrocession” of Taiwan and the establishment of the UN, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in its latest report to the Legislative Yuan. Taking advantage of the significant anniversaries, Chinese officials are attempting to assert China’s sovereignty over Taiwan through interviews with international news media and cross-strait exchange events, the report said. Beijing intends to reinforce its “one China” principle
RSS