据《雅加达邮报》10月13日报道，众议院一名负责国防与外交事务的议员，哈桑努丁，强调这样一个事实，印尼没有任何强制公民参加保卫国家计划的法律。 A member of the House of Representatives Commission I overseeing defense and foreign affairs, TB Hasanuddin, has highlighted the fact that Indonesia does not have any regulation to force all Indonesian citizens to participate in the Defending the State program.

Therefore, he argued, the government needed to create a clear legal umbrella for executing the program, recently proposed by Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu.

“Without a Defending the State law and its related regulations, such as presidential regulations or decrees, it would be difficult for us to execute Defending the State policies and efforts,”

Hasanuddin said as quoted by kompas.com. The lawmaker was speaking in an event inJakartaon Monday.Hasanuddin said Defending the State obligations were currently regulated only by the 1945 Constitution. Article 30 (1) of the Constitution says:“Every Indonesian citizen has a right and obligation to participate in state defense and security efforts.”

However, point 5 of the article stipulates that the obligation for Indonesian citizens to participate in state defense and security efforts must be regulated in a law.

“Article 9 [3] of Law No.3/2002 on state defense also stipulates that Indonesian citizens’mandatory involvement in citizenship education, basic military training and provision of public services along with their respective professions must be regulated with a law. So, up till now, we still don’t have a law on the Defending the State program,”said Hasanuddin, an Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician.Meanwhile, another Commission I member, Maj. Gen. (Ret) Supiadin Aries Saputra, said the government needed to establish a law as a legal umbrella of the Defending the State program.

For the time being, he said, the Constitution could be used as a legal basis for the recruitment of 100 million personnel for Ryamizard’s Defending the State program.