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Poll highlights loss
of faith in military
UNDERMINED: Many respondents said they trusted
neither the military’s ability to investigate the controversial death of a
soldier, not its ability to defend the nation
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Kenneth Lin, an economist at
National Taiwan University, right, speaks yesterday at a press conference on the
results of a public opinion poll that showed most respondents had little
confidence in the military or in the cross-strait service trade deal.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
The results of a public opinion poll
released yesterday showed that most respondents have little confidence both in
the military’s ongoing investigation into the recent death of an army corporal,
and in a cross-strait service trade agreement that is set to be reviewed by the
legislature this week.
The survey, conducted by Taiwan Thinktank, appears to show that the government
has misjudged the social impact of army conscript Hung Chung-chiu’s (洪仲丘)
controversial death and the service trade deal, which many people fear will
jeopardize local service sub-sectors, Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明), convener of the think
tank’s poll center, told a news conference.
Three in four respondents said they have no confidence in military prosecutors’
probe into the Hung case with almost the same ratio, or 74.2 percent, saying
they would not accept the final verdict of the military judiciary. Only 16.7
percent of respondents were confident in the handling of the investigation, with
13.6 percent likely to support the eventual verdict, the survey showed.
In addition to an apparent lack of confidence in the military judiciary, that
74.7 percent of respondents said they view the nation’s military as being “unfit
to fight a war” was shocking because it suggested the complete collapse of the
military’s credibility, former National Security Council consultant York Chen
(陳文政) said.
The ratio of respondents who said inappropriate discipline and cases of
corruption within the Ministry of National Defense are prevalent also exceeded
70 percent, according to the poll.
“That shows that a comprehensive reform of the military’s structure, systems and
culture are essential. The Ministry of National Defense’s 13 measures to improve
human rights within the military are simply not enough,” Chen said.
With regards to the service trade agreement which was recently inked with
Beijing, 64 percent of those polled agreed that the pact would have a serious
negative impact if ratified, while 16.3 percent disagreed and 19.7 percent
declined to answer.
Only 19.8 percent of respondents agreed with the government’s claim that the
pact would create more than 10,000 jobs, while 68.5 percent disagreed.
Asked if the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had kept the best
interests of Taiwanese to the fore during the pact’s negotiation process, 60.9
percent of those polled said “no” with only 26 percent saying “yes.”
“It seems that Taiwanese have realized that three years after the signing of the
Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement [ECFA], the number of people in the
‘losers’ circle,’ and the wealth gap between them and those in the ‘winners’
circle,’ have both increased,” said Kenneth Lin (林向愷), an economist at National
Taiwan University.
Perhaps because of that awareness, 62.2 percent of respondents said they
supported civic group’s plan to “besiege” the Legislative Yuan during the extra
session when the agreement is being reviewed to apply pressure and seek to have
the legislature to block the agreement.
On other issues, 62.3 percent of those polled supported a plan ny opposition
parties to block a proposed referendum on the resumption of construction of the
Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao District (貢寮), New Taipei City (新北市),
with 65.6 percent of respondents saying they would vote in favor of suspension
of the plant’s construction if the referendum was held today.
Asked about the so-called “1992 consensus,” 52.9 percent of respondents said no
such consensus existed, while 25.6 percent said there was such an agreement.
The poll, conducted between Wednesday and Friday, collected 1,069 valid samples
and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
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