Ma: 228 not about ethnic confrontation

Campaign aides said Ma will take part in the commemoration ceremony to be held at the Feb. 28 Memorial Park in Chiayi City in southwestern Taiwan.

Before that, Ma will first hold a prayer ceremony at the Feb. 28 Monument at the memorial park in Taipei on the morning of Feb. 24.

A commemorative art exhibition will be opened in the afternoon of the same day.

Ma will personally attend the ceremony in Chiayi in the morning of Feb. 28.

A concert will be held in the park in the evening.

Analysts said such events on Ma’s itineraries show that the candidate maintains his sympathy for victims of the incident and has stepped-up efforts to promote reconciliation and harmony in Taiwan society.

The side effect is to defuse the alleged continuing manipulation and exploitation of the tragedy by other parties and candidates to monopolize the issue in a bid to win more ballots in every major elections, according to the analysts.

The series of activities were planned by the campaign headquarters of Ma and his running mate Vincent Siew, the opposition Kuomintang, and an association of the families of the victims of the Feb. 28 Incident taking place in Taiwan in 1947.

Liao Ji-bin, founder of the 228 association, said Ma has demonstrated sincerity in promoting reconciliation for the divisions among people caused by the incident since he became mayor of Taipei in 1998.

He stressed that members of the association requested only the truth about the incident and respect from the public.

Liao said he believes the effects of politicians’ cashing in on the tragedy for political gain will only continue diminishing year by year.

Ma paid a visit to the family of Lin Hsien-tan at Wufeng of Taichung County in central Taiwan in the morning yesterday.

Lin helped provide temporary shelter for Yen Chia-kan, then director of the Department of Finance under the Taiwan Provincial Government when the bloody violence related to Feb. 28 Incident taking place in 1947.

Yen, a new immigrant from China in the 1940s, later became the nation’s vice president and president with significant contributions to Taiwan’s economic and democratic developments.

The Lin family also immigrated to Taiwan from China generations earlier.

This case showed that earlier immigrants to the island had provided critical assistance to latter arrivals in harmonious relations, according to Ma.

He said the incident should not be categorized as a confrontation among communities formed by different waves of immigrants.

He also gave a copy of a correspondence letter between Lin Chu-mi, a member of the Lin family, and Founding Father Sun Yat-sen of the Republic of China (ROC).

Lin served as military commander of all the ROC’s troops in Taiwan and Southern Fujian provinces in early 20th century.

Ma later went to Dali City to call on the family of Huang Chin-tao, who had family members lost in the incident and ensuing violence. Ma was also invited to have lunch with the family.

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