President-elect Tsai Ing-wen says that when she takes office, one of her main missions will be to push for transitional justice. Her comments came Sunday during a memorial ceremony at the 228 Peace Memorial Park in downtown Taipei.
Tsai said that the purpose of reflecting on the 228 Incident was to learn a lesson from the incident and to condemn state violence. She said that she will call a meeting of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and amend the relevant laws in order to make public more documents from the authoritarian era in Taiwan. She said the goal was to bring a sense of finality to this dark page in Taiwan’s history.
Tsai was joined by family members of some of the victims of the 228 Incident. Together they remembered the victims and presented flowers in their honor.
In a speech, Tsai reflected on her pledge at last year’s ceremony to help right the wrongs of history and enable Taiwan to become a truly free and democratic society. She said that the goal was not solely to clarify the realities of the past and to offer an apology and compensation. She said that the goal of transitional justice is for all of society to face the wrongs of the past, learn a lesson from them, and ensure that they are never repeated.