ABRI officers opposed reduced political role
JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Institute of Sciences' (LIPI) proposal to reduce the Armed Forces' (ABRI) political role met strong resistance from senior military officers yesterday.
Vice Marshall Tjokong Tarigan and Maj. Gen. (ret) Z.A. Maulani said that ABRI's political role in politics was a "historical fact" guaranteed by law.
Tarigan, vice chairman of House Commission II for home affairs, questioned the legal basis of reducing the Armed Forces' sociopolitical role.
"We have so far abided by the Constitution and we are committed to maintaining this state of affairs," Tarigan said.
LIPI, which is a government-run institution, made the recommendation at the end of its survey on ABRI's contemporary political role. The study was commissioned by President Soeharto in 1995.
The military is the dominant political force in Indonesia but critical discussions on its role are considered very sensitive.
In its report made public here Monday, the science institute suggested ABRI needed to minimize its political role to allow democracy to flourish and political reform to take place.
The institute recommends the military should reduce its political role in stages; from control through participation to eventually playing only a backseat role.
It warns that the military's Dwifungsi, the doctrine that enables it to play politics, allows officers to assume civilian posts and meddle in social affairs such as labor and land disputes.
It is feared ABRI's nonmilitary functions might weaken its capability as a defense force.
The process to reduce the nonmilitary role, the institute proposed, would involve ABRI easing its grip on political institutions and redefining its role as a check-and-balance force in the political arena.
Tarigan praised President Soeharto's request for a study on ABRI's political role, but said that the institute should have not blown the "simple matter" out of proportion.
Tarigan rejected attempts to distinguish military people from civilians, saying that both are Indonesian citizens who have the same rights to play roles in sociopolitical and security and defense affairs.
"There is no evidence or indicators that the military's presence in sociopolitical matters has wrought havoc on our (political) system," he said.
The Armed Forces' participation in nondefense matters has been criticized as a hurdle for democratization. "We love democracy and are committed to defending it. Democracy will be left behind only when we are on battlefields," the vice marshall said.
Tarigan said military personnel deserve civilian posts, such as being governors or directors of state-owned companies, because the Armed Forces members obtained them through fair competition.
Many high ranking military officers attend schools of business administration, but Tarigan denied they intended to seize more jobs from civilians.
"We have to improve our knowledge on many things other than military expertise," he said.
Maulani said in a seminar discussing the institute's recommendations that they were currently "unrealistic" as Indonesia still needed ABRI to maintain political stability.
He ridiculed the institute's suggestion that by the year 2003, ABRI officers should have relinquished their posts in the bureaucracy and the House of Representatives.
"It's also proposed that in the year 2008, ABRI has seats only in the People's Consultative Assembly. How come," he said.
According to Maulani, ABRI's role in politics would fade only when most Indonesians were "better educated, politically literate and able to accommodate differences without conflict."
"For the foreseeable future, the proposal is unrealistic," he said. (amd/pan)