Army to keep network in regions: Ryamizard

Jupriadi, The Jakarta Post, Makassar

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu has rejected increasing calls for the liquidation of the much-criticized regional military network, saying its presence was urgently needed as an early warning system for dealing with any internal or external threat.

The presence of military commands in provinces, military districts in regencies and security apparatus, known as babinsa, in rural areas, has been under fire as they were subject to abuse to maintain the status quo and stranglghold on democracy during former president Soeharto's 32-year military-style New Order regime.

"The regional commands have played an important role as an early warning system, with military subdistricts and babinsa as their cornerstone and as a basis for operational commands assigned to handle security and order problems at local and national levels," Ryamizard said.

Babinsa occupy the lowest level of the military hierarchy, in rural villages, and their main task is to handle defense, security and social problems.

The Army chief made the statement during the handover ceremony to mark the transfer of authority to newly appointed chief of the Wirabuana Military Command Maj. Gen. Amirul Isnaeni from his predecessor Maj. Gen. Achmad Yahya, in Makassar, South Sulawesi on Friday.

The Wirabuana Military Command oversees defense and security in South, Central, Southeast and North Sulawesi and Gorontalo.

The military networks were established in the 1970s by former president Soeharto to implement the Indonesian Military's territorial function in dealing with all defense and security problems, including separatism. But, later, the networks were misused to strengthen the military's political role and to support the Golkar Party, which was established by the military and civilians to maintain the Soeharto regime in power.

Under the territorial function, top civilian positions, not only in the central government but also in provinces, regencies and mayoralties, were formerly dominated by the military. During the New Order era, most governors and regents were senior Army officers.

Now that the reform era is under way, calls for the liquidation of the military networks have been increasing following the 1999 decision of the People's Consultative Assembly to phase out the military's dual function in defense and politics and to encourage internal reform of the military's organization to make it more neutral and professional in performing its defense function.

Ryamizard, who is known for his hard-line stance on separatism, insisted that it was not the right time to question whether the regional commands should be liquidated or not, but to rectify all errors in line with misperceptions over the territorial function in the past.

"The core problem is what kind of role the regional military commands should play in maintaining the country's sovereignty and national unity," he said.

Ryamizard explained that the establishment of the Army's hierarchical networks was based on the "compartment pattern", which reflected the archipelagic nature of the country.

The establishment of a military command in the provinces, of military districts in regencies and their islands and of babinsa in rural areas was found to be effective in rapid mobilization of defense equipment or personnel to areas of unrest anywhere across the country, he said.