Rejuvenation, Recruitment, Mission Service

The Association of Hungarian Reservists was established eight years ago, on July 14, 2001 as a voluntary, non-profit social organization, at the suggestion and with the support of the Ministry of Defence. The main purpose of MATASZ is to form a union of reservist troops and people interested in national defence, and to organize trainings and courses for them. The association held the first delegate conference in November the same year, when the presidency was elected (in the club of the Szabadszállás garrison).

The delegates were appointed by the counties, and the conference passed the charter of the organization, which also specified that a new board has to be elected every four years. The first chairman of MATASZ was retired General Dr. János Deák, the former commander of the Hungarian Defence Forces, who had directed the social organization with great thoroughness and circumspection. General Deák, who is well-known in Hungary and abroad and is considered an excellent professional, was succeeded by retired Major General Tivadar Borszéki in 2005. In recognition of the work done by János Deák as the first chairman of the association, the members awarded him the title of life honorary chairman, therefore the general did not part from the organization of reservist troops after his mandate expired.

Dynamism, renewal, rejuvenation

Ottó Czuprák is the head of the Department of Management Science of Bolyai János Faculty of Military Engineering, Zrínyi Miklós University of National Defence. The associate professor has been a board member of MATASZ since 2001, and in the past eight years his main duty was to elaborate the strategy of the organization. In addition to exploring development opportunities, he organized trainings and represented the association in the confederation of Central European reservist officers (Gaming Initiative), in cooperations with other civil organizations, and at the conferences.

– The preparations for the delegate conference started in the summer, in July. The nomination committee authorized by the board also examined how the work of the organization could be dynamized. While working on the above, I have elaborated a set of principles consisting of eight points. This concept can be found on the website of the association as a discussion document, and later served as a guideline for the renewal of the organization and the board. But it turned out soon that the leadership of most counties agree: change is necessary. They were the the ones who asked me to be one of the candidates for chairmanship. I gladly accepted it – says Dr. Ottó Czuprák, who also told honvedelem.hu that the point of the change he has been promoting for several years is that in the work of the organization, priority should be given to areas and activities that equally serve the interests of the members and the supported cause – that is national defence – as well.

Until now the association has laid emphasis on international relations and sports in the first place. In the opinion of Ottó Czuprák, beyond preserving their achievements to date, the recruitment of young people has to be put in the forefront, in other words, the organization should target and speak to the age group which can be taken into account by the Hungarian Defence Forces as active troops, and which can be relied on and counted on in possible contingencies. This task is especially important now because MATASZ, with the accumulated organizational capabilities and contacts provided by the professional potential of the more experienced generation, can provide considerable support to the realization of the all-volunteer reservist system that is planned to be introduced – Ottó Czuprák said.

New chairman, new motto

The motto of the new chairman is preservation of values, dynamism, and diversification. As regards the preservation of values, it means the fostering of bilateral international relations, participation in the work of the four international organizations – CIOR, CIORM, AESOR, and Gaming Initiative –, maintenance of sports achievements in national and international competitions, permanent training, and preservation of the heritage.

From the activities of the organization, the core function has to be dynamized, meaning that there should be a renewal in the way the association addresses citizens the age of whom qualifies them for volunteer reservist service – and of course, the troops who are contracted soldiers at the moment – in order that this can give proper support to the trouble-free development of the volunteer reservist system planned to be introduced in 2012. Consequently, in the future we will have to find and address mainly those young people who may mean continuous reinforcement for this component of the military force – the newly elected chairman of MATASZ detailed his concept.

– It is essential to diversify our organization because despite the fact that the association has national ’competence’, today there are still counties that participate in the life of our alliance only with a few individuals. All the people who respect and want to support their country know that from the point of view of national defence, we cannot afford this luxury. It is necessary to introduce patriotic education and defence training in the entire country with our help as well. Basically this is what we expect today! – said Ottó Czuprák, who would like to have plenty of stable members in every county, especially young people, in just a short time.

With this we could prevent that MATASZ becomes the club of retired servicemen in the first place – instead of that, it should be the organization of young people interested in the defence forces, and citizens who can be activated for military service. Of course, there are already a few counties – for instance Békés, Heves, Csongrád, Fejér, Nógrád, and Pest – with outstanding results in the ’recruitment’ and national defence education of young people – underlined the chairman of the association.

After the delegate congress and the election of the new officials, the priorities of the organization now include the development of international relations, sports activities and scientific work, but the recruitment of young members is a dominant feature – summed up Ottó Czuprák, adding: it is also very important to gather reservists who may even go on a foreign mission on a voluntary basis. For a previous survey revealed that there are almost a hundred members who would participate in missions, although at the moment there is no legal opportunity for that. MATASZ, however, hopes that the changing law on the volunteer reservist system – to be discussed by the parliament – will, on certain conditions, make it possible for reservists, too, to sign up for foreign military service. Mainly in special positions for which it is hard to find active personnel.

Contribution to the development of the retaining capability

– Furthermore we think that another relevant duty of MATASZ is to contribute to the development of the human resource retaining capability of the Hungarian Defence Forces, as well as the security policy and technical trainings of the members of the association, and the maintenance of their physical condition. I have to mention one of the ways of recruiting young members, which – I hope – will be one of the main areas of our activity. What this is is that we would like to join in the Basic Military Studies course of secondary school pupils, which is considered an important step by the Ministry of Defence as well. We know that a considerable number of university and college students are also committed to learning about national defence, and we would like them to join our organization. I can promise you: if Basic Military Studies are introduced into the curriculum of Hungarian secondary schools in the near future, in 2010, our association will stand by this noble task with tremendous energy and enthusiasm, because during my last visit almost every county supported me in this issue. I know that MATASZ members who are competent in this field could help the schools and the teachers with the methodology and the practice as well. At the same time, the patriotic education and the national defence courses for young people would also benefit from this contact, and we could actively contribute to national defence policy courses and the wider acceptance of the duties of the Hungarian Defence Forces. By delegating this responsibility – with the support of Zrínyi Miklós University of National Defence – to our association through our members participating in this project, we could enter into a more profitable cooperation than the current one with the military organizations of the Hungarian Defence Forces. Nevertheless, we would also like to be attached to every military organization by undertaking another responsibility – recruitment. To be more specific, we would like to support the demand of military organizations of various functions with occupation, education and experience-based selection, with special regard to the selection and employment of voluntary reservists – said Ottó Czuprák.

In the opinion of the chairman once these issues are resolved, the association can fulfil its function it has undertaken voluntarily, namely it can connect society and the defence forces, and act as a bridge between the citizens and the individuals and organizations with direct links to national defence.

New members are welcome

The chairman of MATASZ also mentioned that the Association of Hungarian Reservists – as an all-volunteer civil organization – welcomes every Hungarian citizen, irrespective of age and gender. All that is required by the applicants is that they should respect and agree to the charter, support the cause of national defence, and be loyal to the national defence policy of the government in power.

Ottó Czuprák told us about the new board as well, saying that as a result of the decision of the delegates, a younger body the structure of which corresponds to that of the military as regards ranks, can begin its four-year term in MATASZ. The average age of the newly elected board is more than ten years less than that of the previous body, moreover, its composition has also changed, for now the majority of the board members are reservist servicemen and they have managed to involve people in the work of the association who are leading professionals in their respective areas of specialization, that is in economy, education and administration, or have successful organizations in the private sector.

The leadership of MATASZ, as of November 28: the Honorary Charman of the organization is retired General Dr. János Deák; Ottó Czuprák has been elected chairman for a four-year term; retired Colonel Sándor Kerekes, the former acting deputy chairman of the organization has been elected deputy chairman. The seven board members are reservist Lieutenant Colonel István Orgovány; reservist Captain Zoltán Kovács; reservist Sergeant Dr. József Németh; reservist Sergeant Balázs Jásdi; retired Lieutenant Colonel György Éliás; retired Lieutenant Colonel István Dávid; and retired Lieutenant Colonel Mihály Kékesi.

The former board members who have done an outstanding job in the life of MATASZ in the past four/eight years were asked by Ottó Czuprák to participate in the work of the advisory panel working alongside the chairman. Retired Major General Tivadar Borszéki volunteered to lead the advisory panel, and he is supported by recognized senior military officers and well-known individuals working in other sectors. All of them have undertaken the new responsibility with pleasure.

In addition to the program points mentioned above, the new chairman would also like if in another four years – when the next elections are due, similarly to many NATO member states – a reservist officer would take over the leadership of MATASZ instead of a retired officer, for this is how the association could truly fulfil its purpose.