The convictions of Major Liu Chih-chung (
As is often the case, the government, in particular the Ministry of Defense and the various branches of the military, is not really focusing on the root causes of the problem. Rather they are trying to make a scapegoat out of the media and apply a quick fix.
The root causes of Taiwan's inability to protect military secrets are several; leaks to the media are the least of them. However, rather than deal intelligently with the whole issue of military security, what the Chen administration has done is simply cast the media as the "bad guys" and try and apply a quick fix.
The fix in this case is new legislation. The proposed "National Secrets Protection Law" is pending in the Legislative Yuan. If it follows the course of most legislation in that assembly, however, it will be pending there for perhaps a long time.
Of course the quick fix also includes the usual idiotic statements by the military, in this case supplied by Chief of the General Staff General Tang Yao-ming (湯曜明).
Yang told reporters at the Journalist Day Banquet on Aug. 29: "It's our family business, we are taking care of our own affairs. Those who should be put to death will be put to death." Senior officers are proposing a reward of NT$200,000 (US$5,800) for people pinpointing informers within the armed forces.
Making the media the scapegoat is a popular approach with the military. To blame the media and to try and put a "chill" on reporting serves the military's interest.
In fact, Taiwan's military is not really concerned with national security. It is concerned that its own wrongdoings and ill preparedness will come to light. To forestall that, the military uses the excuse of "national security" to limit the media's work.
By "wrongdoings" I refer to such things as the Lafayette frigate scandal, uninvestigated deaths in the military, the incredibly high incident of injuries and disabilities suffered by conscripts and related issues.
Taiwan's military is in no better position to fight a war than their predecessors were under Chiang Kai Shek (
The situation, I surmise, is basically unchanged. You have aging generals whose fitness for office can be surmised in listing their connections with the KMT, a conscript army that is poorly treated and widespread personal profiteering.
The military would prefer the public to remain ignorant of these facts. Toward that end, squelching the media is an excellent solution. And the rubric of "national security" provides an excellent excuse.
If in fact the military was concerned with "national security" they would do well to turn their attention to "spy catching" rather than making scapegoats of the media.
The National Security Bureau is always at pains to inform the public that "spies are everywhere." On the face of it, that would seem to make it easy to catch them. But as Jane's Defense Weekly has pointed out, "Taiwan has not arrested a suspected Chinese intelligence operative since the capture of four people on a Chinese spy boat" in June of last year.
It seems that the military has better luck catching journalist than spies.
Brian Kennedy is an attorney who writes and teaches on criminal justice and human rights issues.
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