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Military throws away old election role

"The political warfare chief would ... find all kinds of excuses to deprive these soldiers of the right to return to their hometowns to cast votes."

anonymous defense official

Since the transfer of power over two years ago, the military has improved its record on maintaining political neutrality during elections, but it has yet to shrug off the public's memory of the military's notorious intervention in past elections.

During the KMT's rule, the military was vital to the party because it consolidated the party's power by influencing the outcome of many elections.

The military used to have two election campaign systems directly under the KMT's control.

One of the systems was for active-duty servicemen and the other was for those who had left the service.

The campaign system for active-duty servicemen was called by the name of an non-existent person -- Wang Shih-kai (王師凱). In the same way, the name of the campaign system for retired servicemen was also derived from a fictitious person -- Huang Fu-hsing (黃復興).

A defense official, who was involved in the operation of the Wang system, said it was operated mainly by the political warfare branch of the military.

"The system existed virtually everywhere in the military since each unit had a political warfare chief. The political warfare chief was responsible for recruiting new members for the KMT from conscripts in his unit," the official said.

"He was also tasked with finding out and watching conscripts who did not support the KMT or had `incorrect' political leanings," he said. The so-called incorrect political leanings referred to support for or sympathy with the independence movement, which was then considered by the military to be a betrayal of the country.

"The political warfare chief would make special arrangements for the `problematic' soldiers during elections. He would find all kinds of excuses to deprive these soldiers of the right to return to their hometowns to cast votes," he said. "Only the soldiers with KMT membership or those without any security problems would be granted a short leave for elections."

Under such conditions, soldiers who initially did not have any political orientation would often choose to join the KMT to be free from being put on the watch list or to enjoy the privileges available to KMT members.

A soldier with KMT membership would be assigned, for example, to easier posts such as desk jobs as long as the soldier could read and write.

To strengthen soldiers' loyalty to the KMT, the political warfare branch designed some programs to integrate into the routine political education of the military.

The programs included group discussions and unit meetings held once a week. These gatherings were aimed at building an atmosphere in which all the members of the unit felt they shared the same political outlook.

The Wang election campaign system did not apply to active-duty career officers or non-commissioned officers since these professional soldiers were generally unified in their political stance after several years of political education at military academies.

The Huang campaign system was designed, however, especially for retired servicemen. It was operated jointly by the KMT and Veterans Affairs Commission (VAC).

VAC directors used to serve concurrently as the head of the Huang Fu-hsing department of the KMT, which was why the campaign system for retired professional servicemen came to be known as the Huang Fu-hsing system.

The system worked effectively for a long time since retired servicemen, especially the veterans who withdrew with the nationalist government to Taiwan in 1949, thought the KMT and VAC to be one and the same.

After the transfer of power in 2000, the VAC cut off its links with the KMT for the sake of political neutrality, and now it wins recognition from those who used to strongly condemn such practices.

The Wang Shih-kai system has undergone similar changes.

While the military has made significant gains in making its institutions politically neutral, there is still much room for improvement.

The military still has influence over its reserves, which consist of over 3 million eligible voters.

The reserves command of the military is responsible for keeping ties with the reserves, who are mostly conscripts. It maintains a "Chinhsi" (青溪) system to do the job.

The Chinhsi system, which keeps strong links with reserve associations across the country, has helped quite a number of politicians, who used to be mainly affiliated with the KMT, win elections since the KMT era.

Its close ties with reserves associations are questionable since they play an important role in the nomination of candidates for local elections. Candidates recommended by these associations often have greater chance of succeeding.
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