The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday criticized the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) over the government’s failure to fulfill its promise to end compulsory military service and replace it with an all-volunteer military.
Following an announcement by the Ministry of National Defense that the plan to terminate compulsory military service by the end of next year, and to exempt Taiwanese males born after 1993 from military duty would be postponed due to an insufficient number of recruits, the DPP said the government’s failure was due to its attempt to use the issue to win votes.
“There are pluses and minuses in all recruiting systems, so if the KMT wants an all-volunteer military, it must come up with a solution for the decline in the nation’s birthrate,” DPP spokesperson Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) said at a press conference after the party’s weekly Central Standing Committee meeting.
“In the past few months, the goverment’s disorganized recruitment efforts have led to an insufficient number of combat soldiers,” he added.
The DPP has reminded the government several times that an all-volunteer military must be put in place only after careful consideration, but the KMT only uses the issue for electioneering and falsely accused the DPP of wanting to keep compulsory military service, Cheng said.
“The whole nation must now pay the price for the government’s immature attitude toward policymaking,” he added.
Reform of the recruiting system has already passed the point of no return, Cheng said, therefore, the DPP believes that a system that combines volunteers and recruits would be optimal.
The system must enable young people to pick up skills that they are able to use after they leave the military, so that young people would be more willing to join the services, Cheng said.
“The government promised to reform the military after some controversial incidents — such as the penalty system that led to the death of the army corporal Hung Chung-chiu (洪仲丘) in 2013, and the unauthorized visit by civilians to an army base housing helicopters — however, all the promises have become bounced checks,” Cheng said.
“This shows that the KMT government is unwilling and unable to deal with problems in the military,” he added.
Cheng said that the DPP has consulted with many military experts and has published blue books on national defense policies, and therefore would be more able to instigate effective reforms in the military.
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