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.