The Ministry of National Defense yesterday clarified that President Chen Shui-bian (
Ministry spokesman Major General Huang Suei-sheng (黃穗生) said the military has been quite stable since the elections and that there was no possibility of a military coup.
Huang also rebuffed rumors that some military leaders had accepted offers of high positions from the pan-blue team in exchange for their support for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong's (宋楚瑜) ticket.
"We have not found any evidence to support these allegations. We hope the public will have confidence in the military, which will not try to interfere with politics," Huang said.
He made the remarks in a phone interview yesterday with the Taipei Times in response to questions about Chen's comments.
Huang urged the public to notice that Chen was not talking about an attempted military coup.
The ministry's political warfare department head, General Chen Pan-chih (陳邦治), said in a recent meeting with the press that the military did not experience any instability after the March 20 election.
As the chief of the military's disciplinary watchdog, General Chen stressed that the military has experienced high morale over the past month.
A PFP lawmaker, who declined to be identified, said the ministry might be speaking the truth but that it was not the whole truth.
"I have heard that some generals were quite disappointed with the pan-blue camp's loss in the presidential election. They were not planning to launch a coup. They were thinking of retiring early to express their disappointment," the lawmaker said.
He refused to identify the generals he was referring to.
So far there have been no reports of any generals seeking early retirement since the elections.
There might be some generals who were very disappointed with the election results, but they could not be as many in number as those who were upset about the recent appointment of Lieutenant General Chen Ti-tuan (陳體端).
The three-star general was assigned to head the Armed Forces Reserve Command -- a move said to have disappointed several lieutenant generals who were either older or who considered themselves better qualified.
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