As the Ministry of National Defense continues to struggle to meet recruitment targets for an all-volunteer force, lawmakers across party lines have said they are concerned about the effect the recruitment drives are having on the armed forces’ image.
Under the ministry’s timetable, the armed forces should have enough volunteers to staff 90 percent of positions by the end of the year, the state-run Military News Agency said on March 22.
It is 17,000 enlistments short of that goal, the report said.
The pressure to meet recruitment goals has prompted some military units to adopt inventive recruiting methods, the report said.
Some of those methods have been criticized as undignified.
One air force battalion commander personally led recruiters on an enlistment drive in the Old Street area of New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水).
Several units allegedly disseminated photographs of attractive female military personnel on social media as a recruiting tool, but some of the women complained of online harassment, while critics panned use of social media as detrimental to the military’s reputation.
The armed forces have been hard-pressed to find recruits since the all-volunteer program’s rollout, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) said.
Strange recruiting tactics are a consequence of the ministry’s erroneous policy putting the onus of meeting goals on field units, which has led to some unit commanders being givin recruitment quotas, the lawmaker said.
“Troop recruitment should have been the sole responsibility of the National Armed Forces Recruitment Center and not a concern for the rest of the military,” he said. “These publicity stunts degrade the solemnity of military service. Our soldiers should not be turned into insurance salespeople peddling products.”
The ministry should rely on proven methods to recruit qualified volunteers and avoid fixating on quantitative metrics while neglecting quality, he said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko Chih-en (柯志恩) said the recruitment stunts objectified women and had harmed the image of the armed forces.
“The military is suffering from shortages of volunteer soldiers and officers because pay and benefits are not attractive,” she said.
A military career also entails the loss of personal freedoms that many young people find unpalatable, Ko said.
“To inspire patriotism, the ministry must burnish the image and values of the armed forces and ensure that soldiering is a well-compensated and honorable profession,” she said. “Young people need to see that joining the military makes them part of a proud, select elite before we can ask them to join.”
Army Commander General Wang Shin-lung (王信龍) on Friday told a panel reviewing recruitment policies that the military is committed to keeping field units’ focus on operational capabilities and training.
Commanders and ministry officials should strive to maintain the positive image of soldiers, while recruiting efforts should focus on the dedication to defend the nation against aggression, Wang said.
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
The Taipei Department of Health’s latest inspection of fresh fruit and vegetables sold in local markets revealed a 25 percent failure rate, with most contraventions involving excessive pesticide residues, while two durians were also found to contain heavy metal cadmium at levels exceeding safety limits. Health Food and Drug Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) yesterday said the agency routinely conducts inspections of fresh produce sold at traditional markets, supermarkets, hypermarkets, retail outlets and restaurants, testing for pesticide residues and other harmful substances. In its most recent inspection, conducted in May, the department randomly collected 52 samples from various locations, with testing showing
The government should improve children’s outdoor spaces and accelerate carbon reduction programs, as the risk of heat-related injury due to high summer temperatures rises each year, Greenpeace told a news conference yesterday. Greenpeace examined summer temperatures in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Hsinchu City, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung to determine the effects of high temperatures and climate change on children’s outdoor activities, citing data garnered by China Medical University, which defines a wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) of 29°C or higher as posing the risk of heat-related injury. According to the Central Weather Administration, WBGT, commonly referred to as the heat index, estimates
Taipei and other northern cities are to host air-raid drills from 1:30pm to 2pm tomorrow as part of urban resilience drills held alongside the Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan’s largest annual military exercises. Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan, Yilan County, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County are to hold the annual Wanan air defense exercise tomorrow, following similar drills held in central and southern Taiwan yesterday and today respectively. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and Maokong Gondola are to run as usual, although stations and passenger parking lots would have an “entry only, no exit” policy once air raid sirens sound, Taipei
RSS