2009/02/23

Ma Govt to Extend Thought Control to Elementary Schools

The military officers in colleges and senior high schools, installed by KMT decades ago, have always been the tool for KMT to conduct "thought monitoring" on students. When I was in school back in Taiwan, those military officers represented the terror of KMT's authoritarian power and were the most feared by students.

Now, in the name of "defense education," Ma Ying-jeou government's Ministry of Education's Department of Students' Military Training (DSMT, 軍訓處) is amending a "Plan of Improvement and Adjustment of Military Training Officers Missions in High Schools" (my translation of 高級中等學校軍訓教官工作精進與調整方案) to include junior high and elementary schools into the radar of their thought control ((員額不減 教官擬轉進國中小). It is criticized as 'shameless and turning Taiwan into a military state" (教官進國中小 教師家長批可恥).

DSMT denied such a plan but the whole document (in MS Word format) of their plan can be found on their own site.

Update_09.2.24:

Tim Maddog of Taiwan Matters pointed out to me in a private contact that, in less than 24 hr after this post, DSMT removed the entire page from their web site. Tim took a snapshot of that page from google cach, and the DSMT's proposal to put elementary schools to military education (word doc) can be found here: 教官工作精進與調整方案-980202(含完整附件).

Meanwhile, Ministry of Education puts up an announcement in this regard, saying that the content of proposal is distorted by people, that military officers will not be installed in elementary schools. They will just go there to "teach those kids lessons" because "the teachers in junior high and elementary schools don't have the profession to handle defense education." (國民中小學絕對不會建置教官員額 -- 教育部有關推動全民國防教育相關說明)

What on earth do elementary kids need "defense education" for ????

And if it is so justifiable, why did they remove the webpage ?

With KMT's notorious past of brain-washing, I can't wipe out the fear that they are now doing it all over again from the elementary level.

2 comments:

阿牛 [23/2/09 18:36] said...

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TicoExpat [28/2/09 12:02] said...

Ehem, if peace has already been achieved thanks to Ma's diplomatic detente on the Strait, why do we need such extensive military prep?

Rhetotical question, I know.