President Chen Shui-bian attended a ceremony marking the 59th anniversary of the 228 Incident, leading the participants to mourn for the victims and presenting to the victims' families Reinstitution of Reputation Certificates for the 228 Incident.
The following is a summary of his speech delivered at the ceremony:
Today, February 28, 2005, marked the 59th anniversary of the "228 Incident." Time does fly, and next year will be the 60th anniversary since the incident happened. Over the past 60 years, owing to the efforts made by our predecessors in fighting for democracy, human rights and justice, the knot of the 228 Incident has been gradually untied, and the dead have, though very little, been compensated and comforted. At the same time, the historical truths covered and distorted by the previous rulers have been gradually uncovered and reappeared. The 228 Incident is a historical tragedy. We can prevent any tragedy of this kind from happening again only if we uncover the truths and bear witnesses to the wounded history. Then, this should be the genuine comfort for the victims and their families.
Though it has almost been 60 years since the incident happened, there were 40 years in which "228" was an unspeakable taboo and a source of agony. Under the reign of the previous authoritarian regimes, the "228 Incident" did not exist, and any documents related to the incident had been blocked as if the "228 Incident" had not occurred.
In 1987, the nights before the 40th anniversary of the incident, the taboo was shattered owing to the establishment of the "228 Peace Day Promotion Society", initiated by Chen Yung-shing, Lee Sheng-hsiung, and Cheng Nan-yung. From then on, we are no longer threatened and scared, for we firmly believe there is justice in the world and in our society. In the following year, 1988, the first 228 monument, established by the non-governmental sectors, turned to a new page in history in redressing the miscarriage of justice. On February 28, 1995, the national 228 Monument, officially set up by the government, was inaugurated in the "Taipei 228 Peace Park." Standing in front of the monument, former President Lee Teng-hui apologized to the nation and its people for the brutality the government had done in 1947. Following these events, the "228 Incident Management and Compensation Provisions" were legislated and related compensation work was undertaken. While serving as mayor of Taipei City, in addition to renaming the Taipei Park as the "228 Peace Park," I found the compensation was far from adequate and I believed that the government should more humbly and earnestly acknowledge the wrongful deeds done by the government in 1947 and render justice to the victims and their families. The sacrifices and inhumane treatments were inflicted upon by the rulers at that time in order to maintain their regime. The victims are not guilty at all, and there should be no reason for their posterity to bear the stigmas as traitors, insurrectionists, or even spies of Communist China. They are truly entitled to be informed of the historical truths, including who killed their forefathers and who the accomplices were.
This is what I always bear in mind. Over the past five years, I have always wanted to pacify and comfort the agony of the victims and their posterity. In August 2003, the government under my administration officially bestowed upon the victims' families and their posterity the "Reinstitution of Reputation Certificates for the 228 Incident" in order to wash off the unjust infamy they had borne for a half century. On the other hand, since I took up the presidency, I immediately had my administration compile official documentations related to the incident. Until now, the Academia Historica under the Office of the President has compiled 16 volumes of archives in this regard. This is the most complete and impartial first-hand material on the 228 Incident in the world, whose purpose is to provide access to the historical truths of the incident.
Besides, February 28 has been named the "Peace Memorial Day," on which the whole country takes a day off in remembrance of the tragedy that happened half a century ago. From this year on, as September 11 was dedicated as the Patriot Day of the United States of America after the terrorist attack on September 11, our national flag is lowered to half staff on February 28 to commemorate the day and mourn for the dead.
In the past 20 years, while, on the one hand, trying to uncover the historical truths, we have, on the other hand, encountered many difficulties as some people tried to mitigate, distort, or even to falsify the history of the 228 Incident in order to re-define the incident merely as a social insurgence in which the people showed their rebellion to a corrupted government. That is a false history, created in order to serve specific political purposes. In essence, the 228 Incident is a massacre in which a dictatorial regime from the other land conducted a massive and systematic killing and repression of Taiwan's local elites. The incident was a persecution that was completely against democracy and human rights, inhumane, and only served to satisfy personal interests. While forgiving the violence and brutality done by the rulers and murders at that time, we, however, cannot forget the historical truths. Justice can be upheld only when the truths are unearthed, that is, tragedies of this kind can be avoided only if we turn back to the history.
Today, we gathered here not only to mourn for the dead, but also to inscribe in our hearts the lesson that only when we are autonomous and have the power of our own over our destiny, we can prevent any similar tragedies from repeating. Human rights can be protected and democracy can override dictatorship only if the government returns the regime to its people.
Human rights, justice, and democracy are strictly correlative. On this historically significant day, I took the honor to announce that, from today on, the National Unification Council has ceased to function, and the National Unification Guidelines have ceased to apply. The rights to decide the country's future have been returned to our citizens without reservation. Following the referendum in 2004 and the abolition of the National Assembly in 2005 in which the ultimate power to amend the constitution was rendered back to the people's hand, this is the third wave of reform that will ultimately deepen Taiwan's democracy and embody the notion of "popular sovereignty".
We, the Taiwanese people, have struggled for democracy for half a century. Besides returning the rights to the people, we, more importantly, have to correct the mistakes and injustices left by the previous party-state regime. I have said that the National Unification Council and the National Unification Guidelines were the absurd products of an absurd era. They were produced in the timeframe when Taiwan was still a police state. They were not created according to due process, were against the principle of popular sovereignty, and, most seriously, targeted unification as the ultimate goal of the country that had deprived our citizens of the right of free choice, which most of the Taiwan citizens cannot accept.
In doing this, while facing pressures from all sides, I time and again asked myself and you, my dear fellow citizens, including Kuomintang Chairman Ma Ying-jeou, who is also sitting here today, "Is it not right to empower our people with the popular sovereignty?" To answer the question, what has always come to my mind is that, to paraphrase President Abraham Lincoln's saying, it is true that we may fool all of the people some of the time, we can even fool some of the people most of the time, but we can't fool all people all of the time. Indeed, we shall not deceive others and, more importantly, ourselves. Some used to argue that, for the sake of harmony and solidarity, we should not continue to ask what the historical truths are. Today, some may even assert that we should retain the National Unification Council and its Guidelines regardless of how obsolete they are. However, if we are not truthful to the history and correct what has been done wrong and, consequently, have lies and distortions continue to exist, how can social justice be realized?
To cease the functions of the National Unification Council and the applications of its Guidelines does not mean that the status quo in the Taiwan Straits will be altered, but rather that changes due to any unilateral force will be prevented. Taiwan is a sovereign state; the sovereignty belongs to the country's 23 million citizens, who are entitled to decide what the country's future will be like. We have the rights to pursue freedom and self-fulfillment, to vote and to practice referendum, and to support the candidates and policies of whom and which we are in favor for we are maintaining the status quo. However, to keep the National Unification Council and its Guidelines functioning signifies an attempt to replace the status quo with uncertainty and non-democracy, which will put the lives of the 23 million people in peril. As a president directly elected by the 23 million Taiwan citizens, I am held responsible for the security of the country and the lives of the people. I sincerely hope that my decision to cease the function of the National Unification Council and its Guidelines' applications will finally win your support.
To quote a passage of the Bible: "We went through fire and through water, but thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place." The wounds and fallacies of the old times are the fire and water; however torturing they might be, they have annealed our will and determination. The hardships of the past 60 years have made us more determined and attested to the fact that sovereignty, democracy, freedom, and peace are what the Taiwan citizens will opt for, for they will safeguard the great country and pave the land for its people to rest with comfort and peace.
Again, may all the noble souls of the 228 Incident be eternally propitiated, their families be comforted, and you all be safe and well.