Calls mount for ABRI to review dual role concept

Calls mount for ABRI to review dual role concept

JAKARTA (JP): Calls have mounted for the Armed Forces to
abolish its dual-function concept, which has enabled it to play a
major role in politics as well as in security, and to develop
greater professionalism in its ranks.

Political observers Arbi Sanit and Muhammad A.S. Hikam and
military analyst Maj. Gen. (ret) Naryadi suggested in a
discussion on Wednesday that the Armed Forces (ABRI) prioritize
the issue in its short-term strategic planning.

"It's high time for ABRI to abolish its sociopolitical role.
Nowadays, it's only in Indonesia that soldiers play an active
role in politics," said Arbi, a political lecturer at the
University of Indonesia's School of Social and Political
Sciences.

Addressing a seminar on the relationship between the military
and society, he said the abolition of the doctrine would improve
ABRI's image, both locally and internationally.

"ABRI's sociopolitical role has silenced democratization
here," he said.

"The abolition of the concept will make ABRI a more respected
element of the nation," he added.

He said the decades-long implementation of the dual-function
concept, or dwifungsi as it is known locally, has made ABRI
"forget" its main role of security and defense.

"ABRI has developed itself into the country's second largest
business community after the Chinese-Indonesians.

"About 70 percent of the Indonesian network of cooperatives is
controlled by chains of ABRI's cooperatives," he quoted data
generated by a Yogyakarta-based institution.

Hikam said it had become an internationally accepted practice
for armed forces to get out of sociopolitical affairs.

"The United States Army abolished its sociopolitical role in
the early 1980s," he cited an example.

Hikam, a researcher at the National Institute of Sciences,
said the dual-role concept was not an absolute and lifelong
doctrine.

"The Armed Forces' dual-role concept is open for review and
evaluation," he said.

He, however, suggested that the abolition take place
gradually, in a commensurate manner with the nation's political
developments.

Naryadi, an instructor at the National Resilience Institute
(Lemhanas), called on the Armed Forces to positively respond to
the demand for an end to its dual-role concept.

"The Armed Forces Headquarters should immediately respond to
such calls and conduct a serious study into the concept," said
Naryadi, who was also at the seminar.

Separately, former cabinet minister Sarwono Kusumaatmadja
suggested that ABRI first regain its public credibility before it
take on the task of studying the dual function.

"ABRI does not hold the monopoly to evaluate its dual
function. It is an affair of the whole nation," Sarwono told a
media conference on Wednesday.

Sarwono, now an activist in the Movement for Indonesian
Justice and Unity (GKPB), said any discourses evaluating the
concept now would not be effective.

"There will be no end to such discourses since both ABRI and
the public would want to have the last word," he said.

Separately, a group of 150 youths and student activists staged
a demonstration along Jl. Diponegoro and Jl. Imam Bonjol in
Central Jakarta on Wednesday demanding the abolition of ABRI's
dual function.

"Abolish the Armed Forces' dual function. It's been the source
of political problems in the country," yelled one activist.

The group, consisting of activists from the Democratic
People's Party (PRD) and the Group of Supporters for ousted
Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) leader Megawati Soekarnoputri
(KPM), started a rally at the office of the Foundation of the
Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI).

They planned to move the demonstration to the front of the
Armed Forces headquarters on Jl. Merdeka Barat in Central
Jakarta, but failed to get through a blockade of a hundred riot
policemen. (imn)