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Military reserve looks to millennials despite criticisms
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Final countdown: Air-ground officers at the Iswahjudi Air Force Base in Madiun, East Java, check locally made missiles for an F-16 jet fighter prior to an exercise. (JP/Wahyoe Boediwardhana)
T
he Defense Ministry plans to start recruiting young people to become military reservists sometime in the middle of this year, as an implementation of the 2019 law on the management of national resources for state defense, despite criticisms.
According to the law, the military reserve is a voluntary service that can be mobilized to strengthen the Indonesian Military (TNI) when it is dealing with armed threats. The law, which was enacted last September, stipulates that citizens aged between 18 and 35 years have the right to participate in the program under the condition they pass a number of tests and be on call until they are 48. They are also required to undergo basic military training for three months.
The ministry is now seeking millennials aged 18 and above to enroll in the program, according to the ministry's defense potential general director, Bondan Tiara Sofyan. It is expected that about 25,000 reservists would gradually be recruited.
"This program is not a compulsory conscription. The reserve component is only meant to strengthen our main defense component, the TNI,” Bondan said on Thursday.
The ministry is waiting for a government regulation that would detail the civilian recruitment mechanism. The regulation is currently being deliberated over by the State Secretariat.
"We’ve done harmonizing it and we’re now finalizing it. We will announce it to the public as soon as it is ready," Bondan said.
The TNI, she added, would be responsible for the mobilization of the reservists, who can be used to assist all three military branches – the Army, Navy and Air Force.
