Armed Forces' dual role depends on public acceptance

JAKARTA (JP): The Armed Forces' dual function, which allows it to play both a security and sociopolitical role, would lose its validity if people no longer accepted it, Deputy House Speaker Lt. Gen. Syarwan Hamid, said yesterday.

Syarwan, also former Armed Forces (ABRI) chief of sociopolitical affairs, told a discussion here that Indonesia maintained the concept because of the benefits it had yielded.

"The strongest legitimacy of the military's dual function stems from the Armed Forces devotion to national interests. If people think the Armed Forces cannot carry out its services, the dual role will no longer be relevant," Syarwan said.

The discussion, which focused on various criticism on the ABRI dual functions, was organized by the association of journalists posted at the House of Representatives. Also speaking in the discussion was military expert Salim Said.

Syarwan said the referencing of Indonesian history and philosophy were no longer enough to answer the much-debated military presence in nondefense affairs.

The Armed Forces began to venture out of its traditional territory after then president Sukarno declared martial law in the mid-1950s. Many military officers started to fill managerial seats in state offices and companies, due to their organizational expertise.

Gen. (ret) Abdul Haris Nasution was the first to introduce the concept of the military's dual function which differentiated the Indonesian military from those either in western or socialist countries.

Military experts said the Armed Forces' intensifying involvement in politics then served to check the growing force of the now outlawed Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

Syarwan said the abortive coup attempt blamed on the PKI in 1965 justified the Armed Forces' sociopolitical role. He said the state policy guidelines, drawn up every five years since 1973, gave formal legitimacy to the military's dual function.

"The Armed Forces' sociopolitical role, therefore, is not a sort of experiment. It is part of the country's 50-year history," Syarwan said.

The Armed Forces, whose members do not vote, have been granted seats in the House of Representatives, the number of which has varied from time to time. The present House has 75 seats for the Armed Forces.

Both Syarwan and Salim agreed that the dual role was not necessarily aimed at giving civilian posts to military officers, despite the fact that the military dominates the top posts in the bureaucracy at all administrative levels.

"Military officers with civilian posts are only a small part of the idea of the dual function. The number of military officers who assume civilian jobs will decrease in accordance with rising public demands, but their participation in nondefense matters will remain," Salim said.

Syarwan said that the concept of the dual function was so dynamic that its application was open for revision, should people wish to pursue one.

"We will preserve the principles, but the application will follow public expectations," Syarwan said. (amd)