The most important task ahead of the armed forces is to re-establish a comprehensive defense mechanism that helps the military draw more effectively on civilian resources, Minister of National Defense Tang Fei (
"The country used to have such a mechanism, but has lost it in recent years. To bring it back, we have made efforts, such as writing into the Defense Law articles about the building of a psychological defense for all the people as well as a civil defense system," Tang said.
"The Ministry of National Defense also plans to complete in one year a law for the establishment of a comprehensive defense mechanism, ranging from psychological defense to civil defense," he said.
"During the Gulf War, the Israeli people were able to calmly face missile attacks from Iraq, mainly because they had received relevant training and provision of equipment from the government prior to the attacks," he said.
"We are now totally lacking such a mechanism. Hopefully, legislation currently being drafted will help us to start this kind of operation. It should incorporate civil defense and civilian rescue units to achieve the greatest effect," Tang said.
Tang made his remarks during a conference on national security issues in Taipei yesterday.
Though not the first defense minister to propose the reinstatement of a broad and unified defense mechanism, Tang has gained credit for actively promoting the idea since he took up his post.
At the same time, Tang appears to be trying to gain more support from both the public and private sectors as he is in the process of being considered for the post of premier in the next administration.
"The national defense policy for the year 2000 is to establish, on the one hand, a comprehensive defense mechanism capable of deterring the enemy from maneuvering against us and to build up, in parallel, a joint-operation system capable of responding properly to enemy attacks," Tang said.
"Our military build-up is not intended to provoke a war, but rather to avoid one. Although the situation in the Taiwan Strait looks peaceful and quiet at the moment, it might be a harbinger of the storm to come," he said. "We hope the peace will last."
Tang also warned that the overall competence of servicemen is declining and that because of this, the military is having a difficult time ensuring its weapons systems and equipment are properly deployed.
He called for an increase in the national defense budget, which would include a pay raise across the board for servicemen.
"We spend a lot of money sending military personnel to receive special training abroad. But we have no way of keeping these skilled servicemen in the army, because they are keen to retire early and earn much more money at civilian companies," Tang said.
"We hope the defense budget can be raised from the current 2.6 percent of the Gross National Product (GNP) to 3.5 percent. But frankly speaking, 3.5 percent will not be enough, either," he said.
"We would like to find out if the country can afford to use 3.5 percent of its GNP on military expenditure. If it can, we want to ask if the spending is actually enough to cope with military threats from the enemy," Tang said.
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