Boat purchases by local govts protested<\/p>\n
A. Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
A non-governmental organization, the Indonesian Human Rights
\nMonitor (Imparsial), urged the government on Monday to cancel the
\nplanned purchase of boats worth Rp 130 billion (US$15 million) by
\nsix local administrations for the Indonesian Navy.<\/p>\n
"The planned purchases are not being carried out
\ntransparently. Many of the purchases are being made without a
\npublic tender," Imparsial executive director Munir told
\nreporters.<\/p>\n
Munir said the purchase of vessels for the Navy should be the
\nresponsibility of the central government and paid for out of the
\nstate budget, not by local administrations using local budgets.<\/p>\n
He also criticized the Navy for acting as "a salesman" for the
\nboat producers, and for urging the administrations to buy the
\nboats in exchange for promises of better maritime security.<\/p>\n
"We can see that thus far the boat purchases are at the
\ninitiative of the Navy rather than the local administrations," he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
At least five provinces and one regency have agreed to buy
\nboats for the Navy, namely, Riau, Bangka-Belitung, Banten, Papua
\nand Maluku provinces, and Kutai Kertanegara regency.<\/p>\n
Munir said that although the local administrations had agreed
\nto buy the vessels, the funds required had never been mentioned
\nin their local budgets.<\/p>\n
He said that as a consequence of the planned purchases of the
\nnaval vessels, the budget allocations for the education and
\nhealth sectors would decrease, as could already be seen from the
\nbudgets of Riau and Bangka-Belitung provinces.<\/p>\n
"It's sad that a poor province like Bangka-Belitung, which is
\nunable to allocate more than five percent of its budget on
\neducation and health, now has to start buying boats for the
\nNavy," he said.<\/p>\n
He said the planned boat purchases by local administrations
\nwas similar to the decision by the Jakarta administration to
\ncough up Rp 29 billion to buy intelligence-gathering equipment
\nfor the Jakarta Military Command.<\/p>\n
Since local autonomy was introduced in 2001, some local
\nadministrations have provided money out of their budgets for
\nimprovements to security in their respective jurisdictions.<\/p>\n
The moves have raised concerns among analysts, who fear that
\nsuch practices would lead the military to be loyal to provinces
\nand regencies that purchage those defense equipment only at the
\nexpense of national security as a whole.<\/p>\n
The Navy said earlier that many of its warships were not sea-
\nworthy, making it almost impossible for them to guard country's
\nvast sea from foreign fishing boats.<\/p>\n
The Navy, Police and Army often complain that their budgets
\nare insufficient to meet their needs, and ask local
\nadministrations to help purchase security equipment in exchange
\nfor better security arrangements in their respective areas.<\/p>",
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