Audit the military

Audit the military

No one doubted the statement from Minister of Defense Juwono
Sudarsono on Tuesday that the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the
National Police (Polri) were so underfunded as to affect their
overall performance. But when Juwono warned that the defense and
security forces might resort to illegal means to supplement their
meager budgets, it must have come across as a slice of political
blackmail aimed at extracting more money from the government.

Some may argue that TNI and Polri are simply emulating what
teachers on the government payroll did last month. In an attempt
to secure higher salaries, thousands of teachers throughout
Indonesia took to the streets. Some went on strike for a few days
to make their point. Others threatened to boycott nationwide
school final examinations, which, thankfully, they did not carry
out. While their demand was justifiable, their action of
disrupting the education process was simply reprehensible.

Now the military and the police, who also have a valid case,
are doing the same thing. Unlike teachers, they don't have to
take to the streets, and God forbid if they do. The prospect of
armed servicemen marching into the House of Representatives
simply defies imagination. The ease with which they have used, or
rather misused, their weapons these last 30 years is enough to
convince us that Juwono's statement, coming after a TNI/Polri
leadership meeting, is a veiled threat to the government and the
nation.

To a large extent, the government of President Abdurrahman
Wahid must be held responsible for people's growing penchant for
making a show of force, first teachers, and now soldiers and
police officers. The way the government secured hefty hikes in
allowances for top civil servants and legislators, and not for
others on its payroll, indicates that the 2000 budget was
apportioned based on proximity to the center of power. TNI/Polri,
which was part of the ruling elite during the Soeharto years,
have obviously been cut out of the loop.

But this in no way justifies TNI/Polri making such threats,
which clearly go against their oaths. Every one must try to live
within their means, especially when the economy is still in the
doldrums. Low-ranking civil servants are in the same boat as
soldiers and police officers, and they too are providing
essential services to the public. In fact, defense spending has
already increased in the 2000 budget, not by the 62 percent
Juwono sought, but by a still respectable 10 percent. Defense
spending has risen to 5.6 percent of the government budget, which
is comparable to what most other developing countries allocate.

Scheming ways of raising public sympathy, or of political
blackmailing like Juwono on Tuesday, is unlikely to work because
there is no more money left in the pot. It may even be
counterproductive, by unnecessarily creating more polemics at a
time when the country could do with a lot less of them to begin
focusing on solving its economic problems. Many of the current
budgetary problems, in fact, would be resolved if the economy
could start running smoothly.

The meeting of TNI and Polri leaders to discuss their
budgetary problems on Tuesday would have been far more productive
had they focused on finding the most efficient way of allocating
their existing budget without sacrificing their performance. In
corporate circles, this means reviewing priorities and allocating
the budget accordingly. In terms of Juwono's portfolio, this
means allocating more money to the police force, most likely and
unfortunately, at the expense of Army's share, in order to deal
with the various internal security problems.

This is another good reason to accelerate the phasing out of
the Army's expansive and expensive territorial networks, now that
every one has agreed that the military must quit politics and the
police take over the main responsibility for internal security
from the Army. And it is also a good reason to speed up the
process of separating Polri from TNI, each with its own budget.

Finally, let's not forget that the operations of the military
have never financially relied solely on the government budget.
Through its immense political power in the last 30 years or so,
the military, particularly the Army, has built up huge and
complex business empires. These have helped finance military
operations as well as supplementing the income of soldiers and
police officers.

These businesses, and their relation to the various units in
TNI/Polri, must now be independently audited to assess the extent
to which they have supplemented the nation's defense spending.
There is no reason why this arrangement could not be maintained,
provided the businesses are legal, and therefore ease the
pressure on the government's budget. But their operations must be
transparent and therefore audited by an independent body. Only
then can we truly assess the budgetary needs of the military and
the police force, and determine whether their demand for more
money is justifiable.