While the legislature yesterday put off a majority of the draft bills listed on its agenda due to the “need for further cross-caucus negotiations,” the draft bill of the provisional regulations on a volunteer military service was pushed through by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators.
The passage of the bill provides a legal basis for the “rewards, dignity and future career” promised to military volunteers and aims to boost the number of people willing to serve in the military when the nation ends the existing conscription system and implements an all-volunteer military.
The new regulations raise the rewards to military personnel to encourage people to enlist and stay in the armed forces, increasing the opportunities for the active or retired soldiers with non-military skills to receive higher education.
Retired soldiers and related organizations would also be given priority when bidding for military maintenance and procurement contracts except those regulated by the Government Procurement Act (政府採購法).
The Democratic Progressive Party caucus had misgivings about granting benefits — discounts on electricity and water bills — to the family members of retired and decommissioned soldiers, who are already entitled to pensions and cost-of-living subsidies, saying that other civil servants do not receive the perks and calling for a vote on the clause. The KMT caucus voted in favor of the clause.
A controversial clause that allowed military personnel and their families to buy or rent new housing units reconstructed and refurbished using taxpayers’ money, which had stirred up heated debate in the legislature in January, was scrapped.
Before the draft bill was put to the vote, Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) legislators voiced opposition its passage, maintaining that the nation should not implement an all-volunteer military while China’s missiles are still in place across the Taiwan Strait.
“Look at South Korea and Israel, two nations also facing a military threat from neighboring countries; they both have strong conscription systems,” TSU Legislator Lai Chen-chang (賴振昌) said.
TSU Legislator Yeh Chin-ling (葉津鈴) said that the possible future scenario is of a society in which “only poor kids serve in the military, while wealthy ones can avoid it.”
KMT Legislator Chen Chen-hsiang (陳鎮湘), a retired general, disagreed, saying that it is precisely because a strong military is needed in the face of China’s threat that the nation’s armed forces need to be all-volunteer.
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