Sun, Feb 02, 2003 page2

• Military saw many firsts during 2002

  SETTING PRECEDENTS Last year, the legislature began openly debating military purchases and the military streamlined its command structure

  • By Brian Hsu / STAFF REPORTER
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  The military saw many firsts last year as it continued its restructuring efforts.

  For the first time, the military's command and administration departments have been unified under one leader. It was due to the enforcement in March of two defense related laws -- the Defense Law (國防法) and the amended Organizational Law of the Ministry of National Defense.

  The two laws establish the defense minister as the leader of the military.

  For decades, the military had been following a confusing tradition -- to respect the defense minister as the nominal leader but obey orders from the chief of the general staff.

  The tradition had been reversed once or twice due to the fact that the people who took the defense minister's post were granted by the president to have greater power than the chief of the general staff.

  Late president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) and late defense minister Yu Ta-wei (俞大維) were among the few exceptions. They enjoyed greater power than the chief of the general staff.

  Former president Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) was widely considered to have favored the arrangement because he could control the military via the chief of the general staff while using the defense minister to deal with the legislative branch or the public.

  In the past, the chief of the general staff listened only to the president, having power over most of the personnel, material and monetary resources of the military.

  What was left to the defense minister was thus very little. The minister had only a few staff to work for him, while the rest of the military's personnel listened to the chief of the general staff.

  Ex-defense minister Sun Cheng (孫震) was one of the examples. He had complained during his term that his order could not go beyond the office of the ministry, where he sat like a "fisher king." The enforcement of the two defense laws, passed by the legislature three years ago, changed the power structure of the military.

  The laws establish the defense minister as the true leader of the military, which is a must for the military to operate according to the Constitution and to answer the demands of a democratic system.

  The defense minister has thus been able to take responsibility for all military affairs.

  The chief of the general staff, after becoming the second most powerful man in the military, is now chief military adviser to the minister, rather than the president.

  Besides the change of the decades-old power structure, the military saw many other "firsts" last year.

  Minister of National Defense Tang Yao-ming (湯曜明) visited the US in March to attend a "defense summit" with some equivalent US government officials. The visit was the first of its kind since the break in diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1979.

  That Tang was able to become the first defense minister to make a formal visit to the US had a lot to do with the restructuring efforts.

  Tang said in public after returning from the US that he went to the US mainly to inform American friends how the Taiwan military's armament procurement practices have changed due to the restructuring of the whole system.

  Tang emphasized to his contacts in the US that all of the military's arms purchases have to be approved by the legislature.

  The development indicates that the military can no longer decide by itself on any arms deal without getting an endorsement from the legislature.

  The changes led to the first open legislative debate about purchasing weapons systems.

  The center of the argument was four Kidd-class destroyers that the US agreed to sell to Taiwan nearly three years ago.

  Quite a number of lawmakers across party lines were opposed to the Kidds purchase plan, triggering a months-long debate with the navy over the issue.

  Although the navy won out eventually, it paid a very high price. It was forced, for instance, to make public a lot of information on the Kidds.

  A high-ranking naval official, who spoke in private, said: "Although we do not like how the Kidds purchase case was treated in the legislature, it could save us from making the same mistake as our predecessors did in the buying of six Lafayette-class frigates from France."
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