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U.S. scholar inspires president to end conscription

ROC Central News Agency

2010/06/28 18:16:14

By Lee Shu-hua and Maubo Chang

Taipei, June 28 (CNA) President Ma Ying-jeou said Monday that it was at the suggestion of a professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that he determined to do away with national conscription.

During a meeting in his office with MIT President Susan Hockfield, Ma said he met in 2003 with Victor Zue, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT.

Zue told him that Taiwan's compulsory military service makes college graduates forget what they learned in school and keeps them out of touch with the latest technological advances in their disciplines.

"His opinion was one of the reasons that prompted me to advocate the establishment of a volunteer armed forces during my campaign for president in 2008," Ma told his guest.

Taiwanese men still have to serve one year and two months in the military or three years in alternative national service when they turn 18, although Ma's administration has set 2014 as the target year for ending conscription.

Ma, who holds a doctorate in law from Harvard, said his relationship with MIT began during his Harvard days when he took an optional course at MIT, where he benefited from the books of many MIT professors.

At the beginning of the meeting, he said jokingly that he liked MIT not only because it is a prestigious university, but also because the acronym also stands for "Made in Taiwan." As a university with a history of more than a century, MIT is more than just a school that turns out many geniuses, it is a supplier of solutions to many worldwide problems, Ma said.

Noting that MIT alumni have set up more than 25,800 companies with a combined employment of 3.3 million and a combined revenue of US$2 trillion a year around the world, the president said the university is the creator of many business opportunities and jobs in the United States and the world.

He said he floated the idea of strengthening Taiwan through innovation as the first of six goals he set up for his administration during the midterm of his presidency.

"Actually, I had the vision of developing the island into one of the world's innovation centers, one of the business hubs in the Asia-Pacific region, the headquarters of Taiwanese companies worldwide and the regional headquarters of foreign companies during my presidential campaign," Ma said.

"My administration is pressing ahead with plans to realize these visions and has already realized some of them," he went on.

Hockfield arrived in Taiwan Sunday at the head of a delegation of 18 MIT faculty members to attend a Tuesday seminar organized by a private foundation in Taipei. She and her group are slated to depart Wednesday.