Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report.
The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government.
In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing Ministry of National Defense data.
In 2023 and last year, the number rose to 1,104 and 1,072 respectively, with compensation of NT$244.72 million and NT$259.79 million, it said.
As of June, 430 people had filed for early discharge from the military this year, a 90 percent increase compared with the same period in 2021, it said.
Retired Air Force lieutenant general Chang Yan-ting (張延廷) on Wednesday told reporters that the figures were alarming and showed that career soldiers are leaving due to immense workload pressure.
“The ministry must reform military workloads instead of focusing on weapons purchases,” Chang said.
Blogger Drifting Island (飄浪島嶼) said that the spike in early discharges highlights understaffing concerns.
“The military must isolate the reason for each discharge to determine whether it was due to dissatisfaction over wages or benefits, management, training, or, in what would be the worst-case scenario, because volunteers are afraid that war would break out,” the blogger said.
The dangers posed by the trend of early retirements should be addressed, as national defense has never relied on obtaining new weapon systems, but does rely on the morale of its fighting forces, the blogger added.
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