Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Indonesia is planning mandatory military service for its citizens in a bid to beef up the country's defence forces.
Under a controversial Bill, submitted to Parliament last week, all male citizens between the ages of 18 and 45 will be required to join the military reservists for a period of at least five years or face a jail term of up to two years.
The Defence Ministry has been working on the Bill for the past two years. The new Parliament will start debating it when it resumes next year.
It is aimed at strengthening the Indonesian armed forces (TNI) to "maintain territorial integrity, the nation's sovereignty and protect the nation from security threats".
According to the Bill, a copy of which was obtained by The Straits Times, a recruitment committee will be set up at the central and regional levels to begin registering those eligible. They will be put through mental and health tests before they are given stints of 30-day basic military training every year.
The reservists will be ranked according to a military grading system and must serve a five-year term, which they can extend for another five years. They will be deployed in wars or military-emergency areas.
The director-general of Defence Potential in the Defence Ministry, First Admiral Dharmawan, said: "We are targeting about 800,000 people to join as reservists – which still pales in comparison to the 200 million people in Indonesia."
A survey by the International Institute for Strategic Studies shows that Indonesia has a smaller military force in proportion to its population compared to neighbouring countries such as Vietnam and Thailand. With 297,000 military personnel, the ratio is one soldier to 694 people, compared to one in 169 people in Vietnam.
Compounded with the country's vast territory and its challenging geography, this also means that one Indonesian soldier must guard about 6 sq km, while in Thailand, one soldier guards an average of 2 sq km.
Defence analyst Hari Prihatono told The Straits Times that misguided defence policies of former president Suharto – which emphasised the strengthening of the army to deal with internal threats of separatism and political dissidents – had contributed to its current state.
The army has also had to suffer in the past decade because of the United States military embargo that followed allegations of human rights abuses carried out by the Indonesian military in the former East Timor.
But some observers are worried that under the reservist system, millions of unemployed Indonesians could get training, raising the possibility of some of them using their skills to commit crimes.
Said Mr Hari: "Without an effective and sophisticated recruitment system, we could end up giving street thugs military training." That apart, observers are questioning the urgency of having the military reservists when there is no clear external threat at the moment.
"We are not in war nor do we have enemy, and I assume in the next five to 10 years we will not likely have such threats," said Mr Hari. "Instead of spending the money, which we don't have, on drafting civilians, we should instead upgrade the weaponry and equipment, and improve training to have more professional soldiers."