The Ministry of National Defense on Thursday announced changes to the training provided to Republic of China (ROC) military conscripts, with the current two-month boot camp reduced to five weeks, followed by an 11-week posting to a unit, where service members are to receive secondary training in the skills relevant to their appointed branch of service.
While this is a laudable effort as it aims to increase the relevance of conscript training and improve the utilization of their service time by minimizing the type of busy-work that has contributed to low morale in the ranks, it also represents a missed opportunity.
By maintaining such a short period of national service, it delivers — intentionally or not — this message to young service members: You know this is a nuisance; we know this is a nuisance: Let us just get it over with. Rather, the adoption of a substantial conscription system would go a long way toward shoring up the military’s image and transforming it into a vital social institution in which citizens can take pride, rather than an annoyance.
First, plans to transition the ROC military to an all-volunteer force should be abandoned. That is not to say that plans for greater professionalization should be dropped — better training and the development of more effective professional soldiers is vital. However, not every recruit can or should become special operations personnel. Conscription remains important in maintaining numbers, but properly utilized, it is important for other reasons as well.
Conscripts trained not only in military discipline and the duties of a soldier, but in how to mount guerrilla campaigns, would in a matter of years create a large potential force of reservists with the knowledge and skills to mount a counteroffensive in the event of a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) occupation of Taiwan. Reservists are an integral component of a properly equipped and ready military force. The ROC military has more than 140,000 reservists, though they not optimally leveraged. Reservists must undergo training and administrative duties that amount to less than one week within a two-year period — far too short a time to ensure training and skills are up-to-date. Moreover, a reported 21 percent of reservists avoided even that minimal commitment last year.
The time commitment demanded of reservists must be increased and their training be kept up-to-date to ensure a ready force can be called out in the event of armed conflict and that they have the necessary skills to form a resistance in the event of occupation.
Switzerland, whose demanding mandatory military training and follow-up reserve requirements is well-known as the backbone of the nation’s defense strategy and offers the ROC a good example.
In addition to making the nation better prepared for an attack, conscription is a socialization mechanism whereby Taiwanese from all walks of life will live, eat and train together to work as an effective unit. Soldiers serving their mandatory service time, which should be expanded to between 12 and 18 months in order to provide effective training and experience, will come into contact with peers from all strata of society.
Taiwan has been called a multicultural society, and properly utilized, conscription would see Hakka, Hoklo, Aborigines and Mainlanders all training together, helping to form a greater social unity. Moreover, these friendships carry over into post-military life and have a great impact in fostering a more tolerant and unified society.
Much has been written on the experience of Singapore: an ethnically diverse city-state where conscription has been credited with contributing to the building of a cohesive nation. The 2010 documentary Every Singaporean Son follows 15 young men from different backgrounds as they endure basic training and experience a rite of passage that contributes to cementing their Singaporean identity. There is no reason this mechanism could not be employed to help build unity in Taiwan as well — indeed, it is greatly needed.
Of course, having a mechanism to help foster a strong national identity becomes a difficult prospect in a society in which there is such disagreement about what defines that identity.
The ethics and character of the ROC military remains very much focused on the ideals expounded by Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙) and the Three Principles of the People. While these are laudable ethical underpinnings for an organization with its roots in China, they are anachronistic in today’s Taiwan and do not represent the values of modern young people.
While there is very little agreement among the nation’s ethnic groups and political philosophies, there is one thing that unites all Taiwanese, be they Hoklo, Hakka, Mainlander, Taiwanese, Aborigine or Han: the land. It is the land of Taiwan that represents home and hearth, and thus the focus of any cultural shift within the ROC military should be one that focuses on the military’s raison d’etre: defending this land. This notion must serve as a motif that informs all future decisions on projects and policies of the military. This would alleviate some of the ideological gap that exists between traditional military culture and the realities of Taiwan’s people, in that the former is rooted in the Chinese identity, and of the ROC military being in Taiwan, but not of Taiwan.
For decades, the goal of retaking the mainland has been abandoned, and yet the identity associated with that has persisted. Instead, a new identity must be adopted — one which must focus on Taiwanese land.
In terms of practical implementation, there are any number of creative ways in which this can be achieved: Rebuilding the military-media relationship via greater access and transparency; instituting a “cadet youth program” similar to that used in Canada; authorizing the formation and training of indigenous regiments that would not only benefit from training in modern military tactics, but employ the traditional skills of indigenous heritage, such as hunting, tracking and living off the land.
These and other programs would help bring the military closer to society. The only limit is the creativity of planners and policymakers.
However, such achievements entail a degree of willingness to take risks, and so first the risk-averse nature of military culture must be overcome.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has said that the military is in need of “drastic” reforms. A relatively minor shift in the training regimen is not “drastic.” In her first speech as president, Tsai declared the consolidation of Taiwan’s identity as her major goal. Learning from the Singaporean example and leveraging conscription into an effective, well-respected national military service would be a huge step toward achieving that goal. Not only would it improve the military’s ability to defend against an increasingly aggressive PLA with clearly stated aims of annexing Taiwan, but it would help create greater unity in society as a whole.
It is clear that the ROC military must keep conscription — Beijing has seen to that. However, for conscription to be more than an annoyance, a shared vision of Taiwan must be defined and adopted. The adoption of policies centered on defending Taiwan would be a first step toward instilling a new culture within the military that would make it more respected by society in general, and more effective in defending the nation.
Dean Karalekas is a founding member of the Asia-Pacific Policy Research Association and associate editor of Strategic Vision for Taiwan Security.
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