Army marks change of guard in anusual show of force

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

After a seven-year lapse, the Army celebrated the succession to its top post with a show of force at the Senayan parking lot in Jakarta on Thursday.

Around 3,000 troops and dozens of military vehicles, including tanks and armored cars, joined the ceremony, making it the largest parade in the capital since July last year.

Gen. Endriartono Sutarto, who is slated to be installed as the new Indonesian Military (TNI) on Friday, passed the Army commander's baton to Lt. Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu.

It was quite an unusual ceremony marking a command handover, which in the past, except in 1995 when Gen. (ret) Hartono succeeded Gen. (ret) Wismoyo Arismunandar, used to involve a modest parade at Army Headquarters on Jl. Medan Merdeka Utara in Central Jakarta.

The troops had been rehearsing for Thursday's ceremony since last Saturday, three days before TNI headquarters announced Ryamizard's promotion.

Ryamizard, known more as a combatant than a strategist, defended the show of force to mark one of the most important day's of his life. He said such a big military parade was important "to show the people how brave and tough the military is."

"This is an event to mark the handover of the Army chief of staff post ... we must celebrate it in a different way. If we held it at Army Headquarters, what difference would there be from a regular flag-hoisting ceremony?" Ryamizard said at a press conference after the ceremony. Endriartono skipped the media meeting.

"Well, I think we need to differentiate between a ceremony involving civilians and a military ceremony, which needs to be heroic in nature," Ryamizard said.

Also present were a number of former Army chiefs, including Hartono, Gen. (ret) Try Sutrisno, who is Ryamizard's father-in- law, Gen. (ret) Edi Sudrajat, Gen. (ret) Wiranto, Gen. (ret) Subagyo HS and Gen. Tyasno Sudarto.

During his period of service as the chief of the Army's Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad), Ryamizard had ordered military parades on a number of occasions for various purposes.

Prior to the ouster of former president Abdurrahman Wahid, or Gus Dur as he is familiarly known, by his political opponents in July last year, Ryamizard led a parade at the National Monument square in Jakarta. During the parade, he insisted that soldiers had to stick together and avoid all attempts to divide the armed forces for "certain political interests."

The military parade last year took place right in front of the State Palace at a critical time as Gus Dur declared a state of emergency to challenge the People's Consultative Assembly plan to hold the special session that later catapulted Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri to presidency.

Kostrad celebrated its 41th anniversary last March at the National Monument square instead of its nearby headquarters.

Ryamizard also reaffirmed on Thursday the close ties between the commanders and their soldiers in a bid to enhance the latter's performance.

He also pledged to pay attention to soldiers' welfare, which according to him did not depend on how much money they earned, but rather the respect they received from their superiors.

"From now on, I will live with my soldiers who are on duty in the various troubled provinces. I would also ask all platoon commanders to live with their soldiers, share their food and sleeping quarters, because this will keep their spirits up even at the darkest moments," Ryamizard said.

He also said that it was the government which was responsible for paying fair wages to soldiers through allocating a sufficient budget to the TNI.

""Professionalism in the military can be built if the soldiers' welfare is improved," he said.

The government came under fire for its decision to raise the defense budget by 18 percent to Rp 9.4 trillion from Rp 7.9 trillion in 2001. The hike placed spending on the defense sector second after the social welfare sector.

At the time, House legislators said that Indonesia did not need powerful armed forces due to sustained peace in Southeast Asia. Then also asked the government to double the budget for security and the police to encourage total reform in the police organization and to make the police professional in carrying out their duties.

By comparison, the security budget in 2002 was set at only Rp 5 trillion.

"Of course, the Army has several foundations which earn profits for us. We must channel these to the soldiers," Ryamizard said.