Candidates blasted over poor military reform plans

Candidates blasted over poor military reform plans

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta

Presidential candidates have been criticized for not coming up
with viable plans on how to reform the politically powerful
Indonesian Military (TNI).

Analysts and a former chief strategist of the TNI said on
Saturday that none of the presidential candidates had given
sufficient space to this issue in their campaign manifesto and
were inclined to take the current relations between the civilian
government and the military for granted.

"All candidates were (largely) silent on the issue and tended
to sanctify the TNI's position in the present political
arrangement, as if they want to take advantage of the current
situation," Salim Said told a discussion held by the General
Elections Commission (KPU) data center.

He said although some of the candidates had floated ideas of
dissolving the TNI's territorial command, none had solutions for
what to do with the TNI soldiers stationed throughout the
country.

Salim said the candidates -- including those with military
backgrounds -- never said at what level the TNI should be
relegated to in government.

While a civilian government ruled the country and the TNI had
vowed to start reforming itself from within, little had changed
in the way the military performed in its daily affairs, he said.

Political analyst Andi Alfian Mallarangeng said the next
administration, which would have a direct mandate from the
people, should immediately start reforming the TNI.

"I think the next government should take a drastic approach by
putting the TNI and the National Police under the control of the
Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Home Affairs respectively, so
that the two security institutions would be effectively under the
control of civilian authorities," he said.

Andi stressed the next government should do its best to put an
end to all business practices conducted by the TNI and its
individual members.

"Our military will not function well defending the country's
territorial integrity if it is mired in business activities.
Besides, the business only enriches the generals, while the foot
soldiers continue to suffer," he said.

Former TNI chief of territorial affairs Lt. Gen. (ret) Agus
Widjojo said the military would not defy attempts to put it under
civilian control.

"We, the soldiers who have been trained professionally, will
always bow to civilian authority. However, there has to be a
clear-cut definition about our role," he told the same
discussion.

Agus also called on politicians not to woo the military in
their campaigns.

"Two top civilian politicians -- Amien Rais and Akbar Tandjung
-- have helped pass an article in Law No. 3/2002 on defense that
authorizes the TNI chief to deploy troops without presidential
consent," he said

The law contradicted the state constitution, which stipulated
that only the President, as the TNI supreme commander, had the
right to deploy troops, he said.