Thu, Oct 17, 2002 page8

• Editorial: Apologies not enough

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  Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND) faces an egregious discipline and loyalty crisis, which is clearly demonstrated by the suspected defection of an army political officer, Lieutenant Wang Yi-hung (王宜宏), to China. The problems this case highlights are truly worrisome.

  The fact that Wang is a political officer and a graduate of the Fu Hsing Kang Political Warfare School (政治作戰學校), a famous training school for such officers, makes his potential defection, or at the very least escape, particularly alarming.

  The ROC military has used political officers for more than 70 years. For most of this time, these officers played a role modeled after their counterparts in the former Soviet Union. They acted as the personification or representatives of the party and the country, which were considered two sides of the same coin. They helped cultivate undying loyalty through indoctrination, promoted political ideology and monitored the speech and conduct of servicemen.

  Over the past decade, as a result of Taiwan's democratization, the role of political officers has begun to change, focusing more on counseling and education. While the first-ever change of ruling party seriously shook military morale, it probably created an earthquake among political officers. After all, they were trained to have an entire conceptual framework built on loyalty to the country and the party.

  Ironically, these individuals, facing a crisis over national identity, continue to shoulder the all-important responsibility of shaping patriotism in the military. Wang's escape, or defection, highlights the gravity of the problems.

  Other reasons that may have contributed to Wang's escape include the success of defector-turned-economist Justin Lin (林毅夫) and Wang's financial problems. If Wang's reason was the former, then he will likely be disappointed. Lin's defection took place during an era when both sides of the Taiwan Strait were keen to use defectors to suit their propaganda. Irrespective of how much military intelligence a defector may have taken with him, the government to which he defected would have given him handsome rewards in the form of money, prestige and fame.

  Nowadays, with so much cross-strait interaction taking place, China has ample opportunities to obtain intelligence from a wide range of sources under the table. Therefore, China isn't likely to be impressed by a defector unless the person has some valuable information to offer. Since Wang has only served in the army for three years, it is unlikely that he can offer much of what China really wants. As for poster boys, these days Beijing seems a lot more interested in using Taiwanese businessmen to serve that end.

  The passing of this enthusiasm about humiliating the other side of the Strait by using defectors as role models is also seen in the Taiwanese government's less-than-enthusiastic and almost embarrassed response to Chinese dissident Tang Yuanjun's (唐元雋) defection and request for political asylum.

  If Wang's decision to escape or defect was, as alleged by some Chinese-language media, the result of a personal financial problem, the military still cannot escape blame for being derelict in supervising its personnel. The military's neglect is particularly outrageous in view of the fact that Wang was able to forge the necessary documents from the MND and then left the the country under the ministry's nose.

  Apologies are not good enough. The MND must do something to fix these problems.
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