Protesters yesterday put a cage around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) in Tainan to symbolize their commitment to holding the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) leader responsible for the 228 Incident.
Taiwan Statebuilding Party Tainan branch director Jill Wu (吳依潔) said that members of the party put the iron cage around the statue outside the Tainan Cultural Center in East District (東區) to symbolically lock him in prison for his crimes.
The statue is part of an installation whose Chinese-language name (承先啟後) means “to inherit the past and inspire the future.”
Photo coutesy of the Taiwan Statebuilding Party’s Tainan branch
The protester draped two banners over the cage that read: “People should not worship authoritarian regimes” and “Mass killings must be prosecuted.”
Wu said that the Tainan City Government had not followed through with transitional justice for the 228 Incident.
The Incident refers to a series of protests sparked by police actions as they confiscated contraband cigarettes from a woman in Taipei on Feb. 27, 1947.
Photo: Cheng I-hwa, AFP
According to the Memorial Foundation of 228, the woman who sold the illegal cigarettes was badly injured by the police, igniting a public outcry that had been building against the rule of the then-authoritarian KMT regime.
The protests quickly spread across Taiwan for several days, leading to violent and fatal crackdowns by the government, the foundation’s Web site says.
People in Tainan played major roles in Taiwan’s democracy movement, but many city roads and public spaces still have monuments to the dictatorship, Wu said.
“Locking Chiang in an iron cage is our artistic expression to represent the hopes of Taiwanese,” she said. “We urge the city government to remove symbols of authoritarianism to achieve transitional justice and not persist in worshipping the KMT dictator.”
Ceremonies were held across Taiwan to commemorate the 78th anniversary of the 228 Incident.
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) and former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) attended the Taipei City Government’s event at 228 Peace Memorial Park in Zhongzheng District (中正).
At an event in Taichung, Greater Taichung 228 Memorial Association chairwoman Liao Ling-hui (廖苓惠) said that the massacre of 1947 must not happen again.
The KMT has never learned from its history “and still want to cooperate with the Chinese Communist Party,” Liao said.
The KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party are colluding with China, she accused, urging them “not to sell out Taiwan.”
KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) wrote on social media that the KMT would deeply reflect on the past and has the courage to take on this responsibility.
He also called for the Democratic Progressive Party to forgo politics and listen to the public, as history and memories should prompt reflection and unity, not hatred and confrontation.
Additional reporting by Wang Jung-hsiang
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