JAKARTA: Some 4,000 civil servants in Indonesia will undergo military training in the first half of 2026 under the government’s plans to make them part of the military reserve.
The programme aims to foster nationalism and a stronger sense of service to the country, said Indonesia’s Defence Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin last Saturday (Jan 31) at a national defence retreat for the Indonesian Journalists Association in Cibodas, Bogor.
Participants will be aged 18 to 35 and will undergo basic military training in stages, he said.
They will not replace the Indonesian military in carrying out core national defence duties, and will return to their respective institutions after the training, he added.
“We (will) start training the civil servants in the first half of 2026 and concentrate on those from ministries for the first semester,” Sjafrie said.
“We will divide it every quarter so that by the first semester we will have a sufficiently large reserve component. That is the projection of how the state must defend itself.”
Training would likely start in April, but details of the programme and the quota for each participating government institution are still being worked out, ministry spokesperson Rico Ricardo Sirait told The Jakarta Post on Monday (Feb 2).
The programme is part of a policy in place since 2021 to strengthen national defence, he said.
Between 2021 and 2025, 1,333 civil servants at the Defence Ministry went through the training, he added.
It is now being extended beyond the defence ministry and will target 49 ministries and government institutions in Jakarta, he said, as reported by news outlet Kompas on Tuesday.
The training will be voluntary and not compulsory, Rico said.
Indonesia expanded its military’s reserve component, Komponen Cadangan (Komcad), in July 2025, according to Indo-Pacific Defense Forum, a platform sponsored by the United States Indo-Pacific Command that provides updates on the Indo-Pacific security environment.
It got civil servants and government contract workers to undergo structured military training as part of changes to the government’s total defence framework. The three-month training includes military discipline, survival skills and command structure, the Indo-Pacific Defense Forum reported.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/indonesia-civil-servants-undergo-military-training-reserve-5903356
