Plans to conduct loyalty checks on government employees in sensitive positions have been proposed not to attack political rivals within the country but to ensure Taiwan's national security in the face of intimidation from outside forces, China in particular, a high-ranking National Security Council (NSC) official said yesterday.
Aiming to deflect criticism from opposition politicians over a scheme they say is reminiscent of the White Terror -- the decades of martial law under the KMT administration -- the official said it was irrational to equate the two in light of changes that have taken place over the years.
The official also argued that there was nothing unusual about implementing this kind of scheme as it has long been employed in several other democratic countries.
Among them, he said, the US has the best-constructed system, which should serve as a model for Taiwan.
The official offered his remarks a few days after the Cabinet's Central Personnel Administration presented a draft measure that would allow the Ministry of Justice's Investigation Bureau to conduct loyalty checks on government workers in sensitive positions.
The measure would apply to new government employees and those transferred to new positions in fields related to national defense, foreign affairs, technology, intelligence gathering, business, the economy and Chinese affairs. Seventy to 80 percent of these posts are at the National Security Bureau, the Ministry of Justice's Investigation Bureau and the National Police Administration.
Officials of the Central Personal Administration estimated that 4,000 to 5,000 positions would be subject to the checks.
"During the White Terror, when freedom was highly suppressed, people could be imprisoned or fired for holding different political beliefs from those of the government. But given the changes over time, such punishment or fear of being chastized no longer exist," the NSC official, who commented on condition on anonymity, told the Taipei Times.
"Accordingly, it should be clear that such a system, if implemented, would not be misused to crack down on the government's political rivals. Instead, it will be used to assure national safety in the face of threats from China."
The NSC official said that the US, Germany, France, Japan and Singapore all have similar tests.
In the US, prospective government employees in sensitive positions have to undergo thorough investigations, which may last for months, according to the official.
The background check usually includes information about the countries they have visited, the people they have met, the sources of their income, their taxes, their family backgrounds and their social connections, he said.
One of the reasons it took several months for the US State Department to settle Douglas Paal's appointment as the de facto ambassador to Taiwan was because Paal had been subjected to a detailed security clearance as he had not worked for the government for nine years, the official said.
The official also suggested that the checks could be applied to legislators and members of the Control Yuan as they have been asking to investigate the country's intelligence agencies and would be privy to classified information.
Lawmakers have been pressing for increased oversight of the National Security Bureau since March, when a former senior officer allegedly provided the media with information about the bureau's secret funds.
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