Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have proposed draft amendments to exclude people under the age of 20 from civil defense teams.
The draft amendment to Article 15 of the All-out Defense Mobilization Readiness Act (全民防衛動員準備法) proposed by KMT Legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) aims to abolish the mobilization of school youth for all-out national defense. It was forwarded to the legislature’s committees for review on Friday.
Parents were concerned that students younger than the conscription age could be enlisted in the forces should there be cross-strait conflicts, Hsu said in her motion, citing a Ministry of Education survey on high-school students’ willingness to execute their duties on civil defense teams.
Photo: Chen Yi-kuan, Taipei Times
Although the ministry has said that the duties of high-school students would not involve military and policing units, parents and the public are still concerned about the issue, she said.
Revisions should be made to the act to “ensure young students would not be sent to war,” Hsu said.
Meanwhile, KMT legislators Yeh Yuan-chih (葉元之), Jonathan Lin (林沛祥), Su Ching-chuan (蘇清泉) and Sean Liao (廖偉翔) jointly proposed amendments to Articles 5 and 6 of the Civil Defense Act (民防法) to prevent people below the age of 20 from taking part in civil defense teams of schools or other units.
The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of National Defense have said that duties of the youth would not involve military service affairs, they said in their motion.
Under the current All-out Defense Mobilization Readiness Act and the Civil Defense Act, adolescent students could be enlisted during wartime to go to the frontlines, but that would adversely affect their mental and physical health, and put their lives in danger, the KMT lawmakers said.
The country should be dedicated to ensuring the safety of young people and let the adults handle national emergencies, so people younger than 20 years old should not be included in civil defense teams, they said.
In response, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) said that there are different disasters that require information exchange and medical aid, and war is just one of them.
While the armed forces are like sports players, students are like athletic trainees, medical service providers or intelligence collection agents, he said.
Trainees would not be asked to play the game, as each party has their own duty, Shen said, adding that amendments to exclude students’ participation in civil defense would deprive them of the right to learn and personal development.
DPP caucus secretary-general Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said KMT lawmakers were demonizing civil defense by claiming that civil defense means sending civil forces to war.
Civil forces are not the equivalent of militia and they are not required to fight in war, she said, adding that the DPP caucus would table reconsideration of the motion proposed by Hsu.
Additional reporting by Lee Wen-hsin and CNA
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