Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) do not have genuine concern for the 228 Incident, nor are they willing to seek the truth regarding its atrocities, an executive at an advocacy group said on Friday.
“Ma and Chiang Wan-an speak about their concern for victims and of their regret for what happened, but it is all for show,” Taiwan 228 Care Association chairman Wang Wen-hong (王文宏) said in response to a speech Ma gave earlier in the day.
“They only talk superficially about the events of the 228 Massacre, but have never offered a genuine apology,” Wang said.
Photo: CNA
On Friday, Ma attended an event in Taipei to commemorate the work of democracy advocate Liao Chin-ping (廖進平), who was arrested in the capital in the aftermath of the 228 Incident in 1947 and was apparently executed by the then-KMT government.
In a speech, Ma touted his work to bring justice and compensation to people who were killed in the 228 Incident and their families.
“It is popular to speak of ‘transitional justice’ today, but I started work three decades ago to deliver justice for those who were killed, and for their families to receive compensation,” Ma said.
“In doing so, we helped make great strides to promote harmony among ethnic groups, to ensure peace and stability in society,” he said.
Ma said that when he was minister of justice from 1993 to 1996 and Taipei mayor from 1998 to 2006, he was a member of the Executive Yuan’s 228 Incident Taskforce, which implemented statutes to compensate people affected by the 228 Incident and address situations of wrongful imprisonment from that time.
Later, he helped establish the Memorial Foundation of 228, he said.
However, Wang said that Ma represents the former KMT regime.
He upholds the party’s colonial oppression, which has denied freedom and human rights since the KMT lost the Chinese Civil War and began its illegal military occupation of Taiwan, Wang said.
“Ma, Chiang and the KMT have never held the party’s previous leaders responsible, including Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) and other officials and military commanders, for the killings, torture and other atrocities inflicted upon innocent Taiwanese,” Wang said.
“Many people are still seeking the truth about their family members,” he said. “They want to know who ordered the killings, who the murderers were — the executioners — but Ma, Chiang Wan-an and the party always say to forgive and forget, and that people must look ahead and let go of the past.”
“The KMT persists in efforts to hide or destroy documents to conceal the party’s dark past from the public,” he said.
Wang was born in 1947. His father was a city councilor in Kaohsiung who tried to mediate between civilians and the KMT’s military forces, but was killed by KMT troops 32 days after Wang was born.
Chiang Wan-an is proud of his status as a purported member of the fourth generation of the Chiang political dynasty, but he has not shown remorse or apologized for the deaths of tens of thousands of Taiwanese by KMT military officials and their troops from China, Wang said.
“One of the Taiwan 228 Care Association’s requests is that the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei be permanently closed, and that the statues of Chiang Kai-shek and [his son, former president] Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) be removed from Cihu (慈湖) in Taoyuan’s Dasi District (大溪),” he said.
“Moreover, the embalmed bodies of the two should be buried,” he added.
These steps would show that the KMT is serious about coming to terms with its past and restoring a semblance of justice for those who died and their families, he said.
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