President Ma Ying-jeou regretfully failed to take advantages of the opportunity to make amends to Taiwan society on behalf of his rightist ruling Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) for the Feb. 28th Massacre of 1947, in which at least 10,000 Taiwan citizens were killed during the suppression of a spontaneous uprising against KMT rule.
In statements to commemorations in Tainan City and Taipei's 228 Peace Park Sunday, Ma displayed his lack of genuine understanding of the Feb. 28th Incident by claiming that the massacre was caused by "the graft and corruption of the government at the time, which caused loss of lives and restrictions and harm to property and liberty and that, with the addition of the poor handling, created the greatest tragedy in Taiwan's modern history."