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
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
MULTIPRONGED APPROACH: China has sought to pressure Palau across a number of fronts, but the island nation has staunchly resisted overtures to ditch Taiwan Palau has been firm in backing Taiwan despite Chinese pressure that uses tourism economics, cyberattacks and criminal infiltration as tools to threaten the Pacific ally into renouncing its recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign state. The Presidential Office yesterday announced that Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) would visit Palau from Saturday to Wednesday next week at the invitation of Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. Whipps in April said in an interview that China had outspokenly asked Palau to “denounce Taiwan.” “And we have said: ‘We have no enemies, but nobody tells us who our friends are,’” he said. Whipps has told reporters multiple times
RSS