Citizens laud gov’t plan to reinstate military service to help unemployed youth

AMMAN — Social media users have welcomed Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Omar Razzaz’s announcement of the government’s plan to gradually reinstate the national military service.

Razzaz on Sunday said the national military service will be re-introduced in “a new way” as “part of the plan to address poverty and unemployment while investing in our youth”.

According to the premier, the military service will be mandatory for a certain age group, whose members are unemployed, neither students nor individuals living abroad, with the specific criteria to be announced later in the week.

On Monday, Al Rai Arabic daily said that a “top official” revealed that the service will last for one year for men and women aged 25-30, excluding those born before 1996. 

The programme is divided into three months of military service and nine months of training in the private sector.

Women will be exempted from the three-month military training and be directly enrolled in the working phase.

Razzaz said that this programme is in line with His Majesty King Abdullah’s “constant directives to the government to improve the level of services offered to citizens enhance their economic conditions and invest in human capacities”.

Programme attendees in the nine-month training phase will be assigned jobs according to shortages in the private sector, with priority given to the possibilities of replacing expatriate workers with citizens if possible, stated Al Rai’s source.

The source also noted that the government will grant JD90 to those enrolled in the military service programme for the first three months and the amount would be later increased to JD220 upon joining the private sector and for the rest of the programme’s duration.

“This is a wonderful idea. I think it will break young people’s illogical notion that if they do not work with their college degree then they should not be working at all. After a year of mandatory work, they will realise that it is OK to break from society’s expectations,” said Husam Amaireh, a Jordanian professor teaching abroad.

In a Facebook post, Amaireh said that “being paid the minimum wage is better than not contributing to society at all”.

Razzaz noted that those enrolled in the programme will receive training and learn skills, with the possibility of staying in the private sector if they can prove their competence.

Yosur Jubran, a citizen from Ajloun who is unemployed, said that he is “excited to be called upon”. Jubran said that he has been job-hopping ever since he graduated in 2014 and that “it would be good to have something stable to do for a whole year. It will really save me from the constant frustration of looking for jobs”.