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TAIPEI - LEADERS of Taiwan's nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) party on Sunday paid tribute to former president Chiang Ching-kuo, the son of Chiang Kai-shek, on the 20th anniversary of his death.
The solemn ceremonies came one day after the party he once ran won by a landslide in the island's parliamentary elections. The KMT and its smaller allies secured 86 of 113 seats in the new legislature.
KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou and senior party officials travelled to Chiang Ching-kuo's mausoleum in northern Toliao to honour the late president, who served from 1978 until his death 20 years ago on Sunday.
'Mr Ching-kuo was a leader who loved Taiwan. Today we feel grateful to him for his significant contributions to the development of Taiwan,' Mr Ma told reporters after laying a wreath at the site.
Chiang Ching-kuo is widely remembered here for overhauling the island's infrastructure in the 1970s, contributing to its emergence as a modern high-tech hub.
In the suburbs of the capital Taipei, hundreds of people queued up to visit his former residence to honour his memory.
Chiang Kai-shek - who fled to Taiwan after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong's communists - is remembered by some as the man who laid the foundation for the island's economic prosperity and safeguarded it from Chinese invasion.
But President Chen Shui-bian and his party have branded him a 'dictator' and hold him responsible for a massacre on Feb 28, 1947, in which thousands of locals were killed by KMT troops under Chiang's command during mass riots.
Last month, Mr Chen's government shut down the mausoleums of both Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo, citing budgetary concerns and a lack of manpower.
The government had already removed the elder Chiang's name from both a memorial hall housing a giant statue of the former leader and the international airport outside Taipei. -- AFP
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