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Students campaign for draft bill

A group of college students visited legislative caucuses yesterday morning, seeking lawmakers' endorsement of pushing the passage of a draft bill creating a fully professional military service before October this year and fully replacing the draft system for the recruitment of soldiers by 2008.

While Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers refused to sign the endorsement paper, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and People First Party (PFP) lawmakers gave their signatures. Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) lawmakers said that they only approved a draft system integrating the enlistment and voluntary enrollment systems.

Chung Ming-hung (鍾明宏), convener of the Alliance of Conscription Reform, said that their campaign was not aimed at personal gain.

"Take myself for example, I won't benefit from the new draft system because I'm about to graduate this summer and be enlisted," Chung said.

"I'm not afraid of doing the military service nor abhor the system. I just wish the draft system would not only elevate the quality of the armed forces but also meet the practical requirements of every individual."

Chung, a 24-year-old senior majoring in political science at the National Taiwan University, said that there are three reasons the group wished to push for a change to the draft system.

First, men eligible for the compulsory military service hesitate to find a job before joining the military.

Second, the voluntary enrollment system would lead to a fully professional military.

Finally, the draft system is not fair because some conscripts have tried various means to dodge military service.

"It's not fair that only those whose parents are wealthy or have political connections are able to evade doing military service," Chung said.

While Chung's arguments won the backing of the KMT and PFP lawmakers, they were met with lukewarm responses from the DPP. "If you don't want to do your military service, who will?" said DPP lawmaker Lee Wen-chung (李文忠).

Group members then engaged in arguments with Lee and another DPP lawmaker, Chen Chung-hsin (陳忠信).

At the TSU legislative caucus, Chung proposed that the pan-blue and pan-green camps hold debates to discuss the pros and cons of the two systems.

TSU caucus leader Chen Chien-ming (陳建銘) said that the caucus endorsed a draft system integrating the enlistment system and the voluntary enrollment system.

"Actually, we proposed a draft bill in May, 2002, but the pan-blue alliance opposed it, claiming that such a plan would endanger national security," he said.

Chen said that the DPP approved of creating a professional military but the ultimate goal has to be achieved stage by stage.

"Under the DPP's plan, the length of the military service could be reduced to 14 months if 50,000 soldiers were recruited via the voluntary enrollment system, and then to six months if 100,000 were recruited and then further down to three months if 150,000 were recruited," he said.
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