The current two-year term for Taiwan's compulsory military service could be reduced to 20 months, or even down to one year, if the legislature passes proposed revisions to the conscription law.
The proposal was made during yesterday's meeting of the legislative defense committee by a group of legislators led by Chien Hsi-chieh of the DPP.
The draft proposal is now set to move to the floor for discussion and approval by all members of the legislature. If passed, it would signify a major change in the conscription system, which has remained virtually unchanged for decades.
The proposal stands a good chance of passage, since Vice President and KMT presidential candidate Lien Chan (連戰) has already publicly stated there is a possibility of shortening the military service term, military analysts said.
They said it could be used as a vote-winning chip in the presidential election, adding that the KMT legislative caucus might consider cooperating with its DPP counterpart on the matter.
Vice Defense Minister Wu Shih-wen (
"But if the military has sufficient enlistees, there will be room for reducing the service term for conscripts," Wu said.
"The armed forces have a severe shortage of non-commissioned officers (NCOs). Frequently they have no choice but to use conscripts as NCOs," Wu said.
"Only with a sufficient supply of NCOs can the armed forces maintain their combat capability."
"There are over 120,000 NCO positions in the armed forces. But among serving NCOs, only 30,000 are enlistees, with the rest coming from the conscript ranks."
The NCOs shoulder the responsibility for the maintenance of military training and the management of weapons.
"If they do not have a proper service term to train themselves in all these tasks, they will not meet the combat requirements for warfare," said Wu.
Lawmaker Chien did not agree with Wu, however,saying the current two-year service term will not be enough to make good soldiers out of the conscripts and that the point at issue should be whether Taiwan wants to build an elite force in the future.
"The future armed forces for Taiwan should be comprised of professional soldiers capable of managing high-tech weapons. They must be elite forces. The number of the current troops is too large to meet that requirement," Chien said.
"A reduction in the service term for conscripts will not only help slim down the troops but also save a large amount of money for the country," he said.
If the service term is reduced by one month, for instance, Chien said, the number of troops could drop by 10,000.
Chien said he hoped to see the term of service reduced first from two years to 20 months by next summer and then have the term reduced to his target of one year.
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