Sat, Oct 23, 2004 page3

• Lee Jye puts job on the line over deal

  The NT$610.8 billion arms deal with the US has sparked heated debate here and overseas. Like the presidential election, the issue has split the public, though not entirely along the divide between the pan-green and pan-blue camps. But is the arms deal an issue that can be put to the public to decide?

  • By Jimmy Chuang / STAFF REPORTER
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  Even as politicians from across party lines and peace activists continue their campaign against the NT$610.8 billion weapons procurement budget, Minister of National Defense Lee Jye (李傑) has put his career on the line by claiming that he will resign from his post if the procurement deal is not approved by the Legislative Yuan by the end of January.

  Lee made the remark several times to show his determination, as well as the need to make the arms purchase, while he was answering lawmakers' questions at regular legislative meetings. He said that he will definitely resign if the deal is not authorized.

  "This time, the three weapons systems that we are buying from the US are all state-of-the-art weapons, which we badly need to defend our country," said Chen Pan-chih (陳邦治), director-general of the ministry's Political Warfare Department.

  "We need these weapons to balance the military power in the Taiwan Strait and defend the democracy that has been created in Taiwan," he added.

  In addition to endorsing the procurement, Vice Minister of National Defense Michael Tsai (蔡明憲) explained the importance of carrying out the deal as soon as possible.

  "We only have four submarines right now, and only two of them are armed," Tsai said. "If we do not purchase any submarines before 2010, according to our estimates, studies and military analyses, we will not be able to defend the Taiwan Strait anymore."

  The NT$610.8 billion procurement deal is focused on three items -- 6 PAC-3 Patriot missile batteries, which are a high/medium advanced surface-to-air guided missile air defense system, 12 P-3C maritime patrol aircraft and eight diesel submarines.

  The ministry said that the submarine procurement deal is the toughest part of the entire plan.

  "Our end goal is to build our own submarines," Lee said. "How-ever, we have the ability to build a submarine now, but we do not have the ability to test-drive and maintain a submarine. That is the biggest problem."

  "Before that problem is solved, we need to purchase vessels from the US," he said.

  According to the deal, the US will find a suitable submarine manufacturer for Taiwan, because US manufacturers no longer produce diesel submarines. However, the government must confirm the deal in advance.

  "That is why we hope that this budget can be approved as soon as possible," the minister said.

  In fact, to persuade the public to support the procurement, the ministry tried all kinds of possibilities, including printing and publishing a huge volume of various publications championing the deal and inviting senior staff members, supervisors and news directors from local and international media outlets in Taiwan to a luncheon, held by Lee, to explain why Taiwan needs to carry out the procurement as soon as possible.

  However, whether to approve the proposal of the military procurement is not as simple as it once was, because of the political tug of war being waged by candidates who are campaigning in the legislative elections.

  Former vice minister of national defense Lin Chong-pin (林中斌) said that the political side of the issue had made it complicated.

  "The problem has gone to an extreme," Lin said. "Do we need to buy more weapons at this time? I think yes. But people only care about whether we should approve or decline the proposal. I think we should care more about whether we really need to spend that much money to buy those products at this moment."

  Anti-Arms Purchase Alliance convener Chang Ya-chung (張亞中), who is also a political science professor at the National Taiwan Uni-versity, is against the idea of any military procurements, and said that both the Chinese and Taiwan-ese governments should try to work out the problems between them through negotiation and communication instead of expanding their military forces without limit.

  On Sept. 25, the alliance and the Democratic Action Alliance staged a rally and a concert, calling on the government to use the NT$610.8 billion to improve transportation, education and social welfare instead of purchasing arms.

  Chang noted that while the government is selling land, issuing bonds and using other methods to raise money for the purchase, many people are still suffering from the effects of recent storm and flood damage or are unable to pay school fees, feed their children or pay their mortgages.

  "We do need more weapons to protect ourselves at this moment," Chang said. "However, according to the Ministry of National Defense's plan, once we pass the proposal and carry out the deal next year, we will have to wait for another 15 years to have all the weapons we buy in service. That is not practical."

  According to Chang, China's constant expansion of its military is one of the major reasons for Tai-wan's NT$610.8 billion military procurement, because the military expansion is scaring Taiwan's 23 million residents.

  "Under the circumstances, I think both governments should spend their time and money working on communications and negotiations, instead of buying and building more weapons," Chang said. "Let politics take over and stop stupid military competition."

  Academia Sinica member Hsu Cho-yun (許倬雲) is also against the procurement. He said that the government should focus on its work to win the public's support instead of buying weapons to compete with China. He urged the public to establish four items of value -- peace, justice, honesty and kindness.

  "Let's look back at the civil war between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government and the communists back in 1949," Hsu said. "The KMT government possessed a greater amount of soldiers and a greater amount of quality weapons, but it still lost the war because the government lost the support from its people."

  "It is not wise to spend so much money on weapons," he added. "Do not let history repeat itself."

  Taiwan Research Institute research fellow Holmes Liao (廖宏祥) said that he would agree with the procurement of the PAC-3 missiles and the P-3C aircraft, but he would not support the subs right now.

  "Basically, the submarines are way too expensive," Liao said.

  "We should renegotiate the submarines' price or find something else. It is just not worth spending so much money on eight diesel submarines," he said.

  In the meantime, Liao said that he would call the plan of building our own submarines a "reasonably good idea" if all the technical problems could be solved.

  "I believe that we will be able to build the vessels that fit our needs perfectly and save a lot of money, if crucial technical problems no longer exist," Liao said. "I would support the idea."
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