Wu, who is also a research fellow in the Academica Sinica Institute of Sociology, made the appeal during a forum on "Transitional Justice on the eve of Feb. 28" held at the Chen Wen-cheng Memorial Foundation in Taipei by the civic commission, which issued a "white paper" on the progress of "transitional justice" in Taiwan.

Wu stated that the previous Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had only begun to press the question of "transitional justice" for the victims of the former KMT authoritarian government during its second four-year term.

Although the DPP government had revealed previously secret official documents, constructed memorials, established human rights memorial parks and held numerous forums which raised concern in society, Wu stated that longer-term priorities such as the building of a democratic culture and the preservation of historical memory and the pursuit of judicial justice had been relatively neglected.

Moreover, Wu stated that the DPP government had not made progress toward breaking the most important political cases from the KMT era, notably the unsolved cases of the Feb. 28, 1979 murders of the mother and two daughters of then-imprisoned Taiwan provincial assemblyman and later DPP chairman Lin I-hsiung and the July 3, 1981 murder of Carnegie Mellon Professor Chen Wen-cheng.

Even though the restored KMT government had been in office only nine months, Wu said such a period was long enough to show that the KMT "has little interest in democratic values but has only been forced to accept democratic game rules" and added that the KMT government had achieved "zero" visibility or activity on the issue of transitional justice.

Wu expressed affirmation for Ma's apologies for the KMT regime's violations of human rights during the KMT's authoritarian period and his acknowledgement that the late KMT dictator Chiang Kai-shek has "political responsibility" for the Feb. 28th Incident.

However, Wu added that the ruling KMT should take the initiative to release and publish its own party files related to the "228" incident and should organize a team of professional researchers who have public credibility to seriously investigate the Lin family and Chen Wen-cheng murders.

Regarding the question of the name of the "Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall," Wu stated that exhibitions reflecting the "contrary historical memories" should be held simultaneously in the facility to let people understand history through contact with the conflicting historical memories and thus reconsider their own views.

In addition, Academia Sinica Institute of Taiwan History Professor Wu Rui-ren commented that for Ma to cry in front of victims of the "228" massacre or the "white terror" and weep at the tombs of the late KMT autocrats Chiang Kai-shek and his son Ching-kuo was "a cheap form of behavior."

In related news, former two-time political prisoner Huang Hua launched a sit-in at the National Taiwan Democracy Memorial Park's Liberty Square at 2:28 pm yesterday afternoon to protest the KMT's plan to restore the original name of the facility in commemoration of the late KMT dictator.