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Military reserve program feared to cause horizontal conflicts, violate human rights
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Reservists of West Kalimantan's Tanjungpura/XII Military Command attend a ceremony on Sept. 20, 2021 before they are sent to the Army's Special Forces training center in Batu Jajar, West Java for training. (ANTARA/essica Helena Wuysang)
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ctivists have slammed the government for pressing ahead with installing the first batch of military reservists despite the law that regulates the controversial program still being reviewed by the Constitutional Court.
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo inaugurated last week some 3,100 civilians as military reservists, marking the establishment of military reserves (Komcad).
The reservists had undergone three month-long basic military training periods at the Army's Special Forces training center in Batu Jajar, West Java after passing the selection process held by the Defense Ministry in June.
The government began recruiting reservists in early May despite concerns from activists and experts about potential civil militarization. This prompted a coalition of some civil groups, activists and a student to turn to the Constitutional Court later in the same month to challenge provisions regulating military reserves in the 2019 law on the management of national resources for state defense.
They demand the court annul some provisions, from those regulating reservist deployment for nonmilitary threats to imprisonment for reservists who refuse to answer a call to service, on the grounds that it may cause conflict in the community and violate the right to conscientious objection to service.
They have also requested an injunction to postpone the recruitment until the court issues a ruling. The court has yet to decide on the injunction, but the coalition said nevertheless the government should have respected their request and delayed the inauguration of reservists.
“We have demanded [at court] that [the government] not recruit military reservists while the judicial review is ongoing,” Adelita Kasih of Kontras, a civil coalition member, told The Jakarta Post on Monday. “But that does not seem to be heard [by the government] and the program continues.”
