Conscription necessary if voluntary enlistment falls short: top official
The top official at the Defence Ministry said on Wednesday that the armed forces would still have to recruit new soldiers, either through conscription or voluntary applications.
Defending the defence budget in front of the special budget committee of the House, defence permanent secretary General Sanitchanok Sangkhachan said that military conscription would have to be continued to ensure that the military reserve system would not fall apart.
He said compulsory conscription could be scrapped only if those facing conscription voluntarily enlist to fill the annual vacant slots.
Sanitchanok pointed out that the conscription system prompted high-school and university students to opt out to be trained in territory defence training instead of being conscripted.
The trained students would later become commanders of units of the reserved forces if a war occurs, Sanitchok added.
The abolition of compulsory conscription has become a hot political issue after the Move Forward Party promised during its election campaigns to end the practice.
The ruling Pheu Thai Party has a similar policy, saying it would gradually phase out conscription by increasing welfare for newly recruited soldiers so that Thai men in the age of military services would voluntarily apply to fill the annual vacant slots in the armed forces.
Sanitchanok said he agreed with the Pheu Thai government on increasing incentives for Thais to want to join the military.
He added that the Defence Ministry had recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the Education Ministry to provide free education to newly-recruited soldiers so that they could apply for jobs after they complete the military service.
He told the House budget panel that the Defence Ministry had plans to make the armed forces compact in two phases from 2025 to 2027 and from 2028 to 2037.
The plans would involve using new technologies, such as drones, to monitor border areas against drug trafficking, Sanitchanok added.
The Defence Ministry also has an early retirement programme for generals and soldiers in lower ranks that would start in 2025 until 2027. The programme would require a budget of about 200 million baht a year but would help the country save 4 billion baht in the long run, he added.
