All except one candidate champion civilian govt

All except one candidate champion civilian govt

Ridwan Max Sijabat and Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta

All the presidential candidates except for retired general
Wiranto agree to civilian supremacy in governance, particularly
regarding the handling of defense and security matters.

And while all candidates were for a professional military,
their platforms lacked elaboration on how this is to be done, a
discussion with the candidates' success teams revealed.

Wednesday's discussion on the candidates' defense and security
platforms was held by Propatria, a non government organization
comprising experts on defense issues.

Lt. Gen. (ret.) Suaidi Marasabessy, chairman of Wiranto's
campaign team, said the concept of "civilian supremacy" or civil-
military dichotomy was not found in the Amended 1945 Constitution
and the new Law No. 3/2002 on state defense. "Civilians and the
military are equal before the law," he said.

Edy Prasetyono of the Centre for Strategic International
Studies (CSIS), said he appreciated the four other presidential
candidates' platforms who he said had adopted the civilian
supremacy concept, a crucial part of democracy.

Edy called on the candidates to continue internal reform in
the military, as they promised following the formal end of the
New Order regime in 1998.

Under a new structure, "the TNI (Indonesian Military)
commander would be subordinate to the defense minister," he said.

Currently the TNI commander is on par with Cabinet ministers.

In a study on the platforms on defense the experts found, for
instance, that none of the platforms discussed the need to review
the role of the police to protect and serve the people.

Neither did any of them touch on changing police culture,
which they said is essential to help the police fit in with its
role in line with the new law on the police, which separates the
police from the TNI.

Legal expert Bambang Widjojanto said the police "must change
itself to become a civilian police ... to protect and serve the
people, enforce the law and maintain security and order."

On defense in general, the camp of Gen. (ret) Wiranto's
platform stresses the need of consistency among regulations and
laws. But it does not reveal how relations between the Indonesian
Military (TNI) and the Police should be reviewed despite the new
law on the police.

While the law states that internal security is the
responsibility of the police, who can ask for TNI's help when
necessary, the platform of Megawati and Hamzah Haz respectively
proposed ways of the possibility of involving the TNI in internal
security matters. Amien Rais' platform also stresses the need to
draw up laws on the arrangement of TNI's assistance to the
government.

Edy said further the presidential candidates should also make
concrete programs to make TNI professional.

"The recruitment and training system must be reviewed, the
military's annual budget must be derived from the annual state
budget and the military must be transparent regarding its
budget," he said, adding that the military should not be allowed
to do business.

All candidates agreed that the welfare of TNI personnel must
be improved.