NO NAME CHANGE, NO POLITICS FOR MILITARY: VICE DEFENSE MINISTER
Central News Agency
2005-05-18 22:04:03
Taipei, May 18 (CNA) The military should not get involved in politics and the names of military units will not be changed, Vice Minister of National Defense Tsai Ming-shian stressed Wednesday.
Tsai made the remarks when answering questions at an interpellation session at the Legislative Yuan from opposition People First Party (PFP) lawmaker Lin Yu-fang.
Lin asked Tsai to give an explanation of the name of the "Chinese Military Academy" in Fengshan, Kaohsiung County in southern Taiwan following a media report that the government is planning to renew a name change campaign for the country's diplomatic missions overseas and state-run enterprises. Lin opined that "politics should be no issue of concern in the military."
Stressing that there is no plan to change any name of military schools and institutions, Tsai said that troops must not meddle in politics and expressed the hope that the Ministry of National Defense will do its utmost to keep the highly sensitive issue away from the military.
The ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) put forward a name change campaign, following in the footsteps of the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) , to win votes among pro-independence supporters in last December's legislative elections, sending cross-Taiwan Strait relations to a low ebb.
However, the DPP and the TSU together failed to grab more than half of the seats in the 225-member Legislative Yuan, giving way to the anti-independence "pan blue alliance" of the Kuomintang, the PFP and the New Party.
(By Flor Wang)
ENDITEM/mw
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