House Speaker Urges SPPI KDKMP Training to Focus Solely on Managerial Skills

House Speaker Puan Maharani has requested that training for participants of the Sarjana Penggerak Pembangunan Indonesia (SPPI) programme, intended for the Koperasi Desa/Kelurahan Merah Putih (KDKMP) and Koperasi Nelayan Merah Putih (KNMP) schemes, be focused solely on managerial education. She made the statement in response to an evaluation of the basic military training for the programme, following the deaths of several participants. ‘It would be best to focus more on managerial skills alone, so that they can later carry out the implementation as expected,’ Puan said during a press conference after a plenary session at the parliamentary complex in Jakarta on Tuesday. She expressed her deepest condolences regarding the deaths of the SPPI KDKMP and KNMP participants, stressing that such a tragic loss of life must not be repeated. Puan added that the House of Representatives would oversee the evaluations of the training process and follow up on them. ‘We hope that the evaluation being conducted can be carried out comprehensively,’ she said. The Ministry of Defence had previously halted the basic military training for SPPI candidates set to become managers of the KDKMP and KNMP cooperatives. ‘The Ministry of Defence is adjusting the activity approach. The terminology and implementation of the activities are now directed towards State Defence and Managerial Briefing, no longer basic military training,’ said Brigadier General TNI Rico Ricardo Sirait, Head of the Defence Information Bureau at the Ministry of Defence Secretariat General, in Jakarta on Monday. The change was made after Defence Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin evaluated the learning system, following the incident in which five basic military training participants died. With this evaluation, Rico confirmed that physical activities and training related to military drills would be reduced.