President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday encouraged military academy graduates never to give up hope in adverse situations, recounting a familiar parable about two shoe salesmen in Africa.
"The first shoe salesman wants to go back to his country immediately after he arrives in Africa and finds all the people there are barefooted. But the second one responds totally differently to the same situation," Chen said.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"He sends a cable back to his company, asking them to prepare a shipment of shoes. He thinks there will be a huge demand for shoes there," he said.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"What I wish to say to you is that if somebody asks you to contribute 100 percent effort, you should work even harder, to 120 percent of your capability," Chen said.
Chen made the remarks yesterday as he delivered a speech to nearly 1,000 military academy graduates at a lunch party following a joint graduation ceremony for five different military schools. The ceremony took place at Taipei's Political Warfare College.
It was the first time that Chen had presided over the annual joint graduation ceremony for all military academies. Chen gave, at the same time, commission orders to over 900 military academy graduates as well as the first eight Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) program participants.
The ROTC is an experimental program based on a US system with the same name.
After giving his speech at the lunch party, Chen walked into the crowd of newly commissioned officers to shake hands with them.
Chen received warm applause from all the officers, which lasted over six minutes and resembled a standing ovation at an opera house. Such a warm reception would appear to indicate that Chen has consolidated his position as the supreme commander of the armed forces and that his popularity among the younger military officers is on the rise because of his easy personal style.
Yesterday's joint military academy graduation ceremony also attracted the media because of the participation of the first eight cadets of the ROTC program. They were commissioned at the same time as their military academy counterparts.
After finishing all their training, the eight ROTC officers will go into service in the army by the end of the month, serving as platoon leaders in different branches of the army, ranging from artillery to armored and infantry divisions.
They joined the ROTC program for various reasons, but many of them share the belief that thier future success will be based on their experiences in the academy.
Many still wondered what life outside the academy would have in store for them.
Second Lieutenant Wu Chen-chi (吳
"I hope to become a military judge or staff officer in the future," Wu said.
Another ROTC officer, Tsai Hung-pin (蔡宏彬), who graduated from National Taiwan Ocean University, said he was not so sure of the prospects for ROTC officers to make military service their career.
"Many fellow officers from military academies do not think too much of us. We know this and will try to become more militarily capable," Tsai said.
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