Tiananmen Square Massacre Denial Furore
On 15 May 2007, during an informal meeting Ma had with journalists to discuss political reform, Ma was asked on his views on the "Tiananmen massacre". Ma caused huge furore which hit radio broadcasts, the front pages and editorials of several of the local newspapers, which cited him denying that clampdown of the protesters was a "massacre".
He said of 4000 students at the scene, not everyone got killed; certain student leaders, namely Chai Ling, Wuerkaixi, Feng Chungde, and Hou Dejian, were able to leave the protest site without incident, therefore it is not a massacre. Comments which appeared to cause the most offense related to the alleged army tanks' rolling over protesters, and the PLA's cremation of victim's bodies on-site:
| “ | How could people say bodies were minced under the tanks? Has anybody tried mincing meat under tanks? Try doing this with pigs and we will know! ....It takes 1000 °C to cremate bodies. If could burn bodies this way, there would be no backlogs at the cremation chambers, would there? | ” |
Ma questioned whether "Gweilos" (a racial epithet for Caucasians) should be the ones to interpret the truth about Tiananmen, and asserted that Hong Kong was "not mature enough", for believing a massacre took place. Hong Kong lacked patriotism and national identity, and would thus not be ready for universal suffrage until 2022.
Ma also asked the Education Department to define massacre as events where over 4,000 were dead, which would make Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 not a massacre under the new definition. He later withdrew the redefinition request.
Read more about this topic: Ma Lik
Famous quotes containing the words square, massacre and/or denial:
“If magistrates had true justice, and if physicians had the true art of healing, they would have no occasion for square caps; the majesty of these sciences would of itself be venerable enough. But having only imaginary knowledge, they must employ those silly tools that strike the imagination with which they have to deal; and thereby, in fact, they inspire respect.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)
“The bourgeoisie of the whole world, which looks complacently upon the wholesale massacre after the battle, is convulsed by horror at the desecration of brick and mortar.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“The denial of our duty to act in this case is a denial of our right to act; and if we have no right to act, then may we well be termed “the white slaves of the North,” for like our brethren in bonds, we must seal our lips in silence and despair.”
—Angelina Grimké (1805–1879)