The worst is not over to start loosening spending. Making the Komcad an exception is baffling especially since it is defense spending that has been the cut the most, forcing Indonesia to cancel plans to procure the many weapons needed to modernize the military.

The TNI has already given up on the idea of meeting the 2024 target of building the Minimum Essential Force (MEF) needed for Indonesia to be able to defend its territory. Launching Komcad is a case of misplaced priority, even within the national defense strategy.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Oct. 7 inaugurated the first 3,103 members of the reserve unit made up of volunteers. The plan is to bring the size to 25,000 personnel. The 2019 Law on the Management of National Resources for State Defense stipulates that these reservists could be mobilized by the President with approval of the House of Representatives in times of military emergency or war.

Komcad will supplement the TNI’s core component of around 400,000 professional soldiers. The Defense Ministry said almost all of Indonesia’s neighbors have established their reserve army, citing Vietnam with 4 million, Singapore 312,500, Thailand 245,000, Malaysia 41,600 and the Philippines 131.000.

Keeping up with the Joneses however, is not a way of managing our defense unless we consider these neighbors a serious threat that we need to match weapon by weapon and soldier by soldier.

Successive white papers on threats of perception to national security have said Indonesia does not face any immediate external military threat, and that the bigger threats are internal and mostly non-military in nature, from terrorism by non-state actors and smuggling, to insurgencies in Papua. 

The rising tension in the South China Sea where there are overlapping territorial claims and the growing presence of China and the United States warships may have changed that threat perception, but even if conflicts break out here, these will likely be battles of the sea and air.

Indonesia needs more warships and planes to protect its territory. It is all the more reason to complete the MEF. Creating the reserve component will not make a huge impact.

Indonesia conducted mass mobilization in the 1960s during the campaign to win Papua from Dutch hands. In 1965, the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) proposed the creation of the Fifth Force made up of 15 million mostly laborers and farmers, to beef up the military campaign against Malaysia. Sukarno had approved the plan, but with the abortive coup that same year, the plan never materialized. The PKI was quashed and Sukarno was toppled nevertheless, paving the way for Soeharto and his army’s rule for the next three decades.

The lack of urgency and of credible explanation for launching Komcad only raise unnecessary and wild speculations about the real motives behind it. Frankly speaking, we already have too much of this conspiratorial thinking in the run-up to the 2024 elections.