Army to keep network in regions: Ryamizard

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.