New practice to promote military's raison d'etre

To promote Chief of General Staff Tang Yao-ming's (湯曜明) ideas on "for whom and for what should servicemen fight," the military is prepared to issue a small card bearing Tang's words to all military personnel, according to a defense source.

The new practice follows Tang's anger at not being understood when he talks about the subject despite his efforts to have the message be comprehensively received across the services over the past few months, the defense source said.

Tang discovered soldiers' lack of awareness early this month as he inspected a military unit in northern Taiwan. He asked several servicemen, including soldiers and officers, about whether they knew the answer to the question of "for whom and for what should servicemen fight." None of the servicemen could give Tang a satisfactory answer.

Enraged by the finding, Tang asked for an explanation from the political warfare system of the military, which is responsible for the propagation of Tang's teachings on the subject. Those teachings state that servicemen should fight for the people of Taiwan and the survival of the country.

The education campaign was launched in July, shortly after the publication of news reports about several retired Taiwanese generals telling visitors from a US military academy that the servicemen in Taiwan no longer know for whom and for what they should be fighting.

The political warfare system has been trying hard over the past few months to impress the servicemen with Tang's teachings by printing it in every military publication and running it in a televised military-education program broadcast every Thursday.

But the efforts could not sustain a random test by Tang of servicemen selected while inspecting a military unit.

Unable to explain to Tang why there are still so many servicemen who have no idea about his teachings, the political warfare system came up with a new practice of issuing a small card bearing Tang's words on the subject, hoping it will work more effectively.

The Ministry of National Defense yesterday confirmed the new practice but it said it has not been adopted across the services.

"The army and marines have already issued the small card to each soldier in their services, but the air force and navy have yet to follow suit," said a ministry official, who declined to be identified.