Change in ABRI an anticipative move: Analysts

JAKARTA (JP): Two analysts agreed the recent reshuffle in the Armed Forces was a well-planned move that would better equip the Indonesian military to meet future challenges.

Political professor Juwono Sudarsono of the University of Indonesia said the reshuffle was an anticipative move while the restructuring in the Navy, Air Force and the National Police was meant to make them as effective as the Army.

"With the creation of the new post of deputy chief of staff within the three military corps, their organizational structure is now the same as the Army," Juwono said.

"It's a well-planned move," said Salim Said, a military analyst who received his doctorate on Indonesian military from the Ohio State University in 1985.

"The military made this decision to anticipate and meet the challenges facing the nation in the future," he said.

The Armed Forces unveiled Friday a massive leadership reshuffle which affected 298 high-ranking officers in the Army, Navy, Air Force and National Police.

Juwono, who is also Vice Governor of the National Resilience Institute (Lemhannas), the military think tank, said the restructuring in the Navy, Air Force and National Police was designed to follow that of the Army, which is the most senior corps in the Armed Forces.

"From the perspective of military professionalism and ABRI's social political role in the future, there will be greater workload for the three (newly restructured) corps," said Juwono.

"With the newly created post, the corps' chief of staff will be able to concentrate more on strategic things, while their deputies coordinate the day-to-day tasks," he said.

Juwono said the restructuring was prepared five years ago.

Salim said the change in the three corps' organization was meant to boost the Armed Forces' performance in handling various challenges.

He cited shortcomings in the National Police, which have long been acknowledged but difficult to address for various reasons.

Among the problems was the need to increase the number of officers to meet the international standard of one police officer for every 750 people.

This means Indonesia should have 266,666 police officers for its 200 million population. It currently has 184,283 officers.

Salim said the reshuffle was a "normal and routine tour of duty" which would happen every time officials left their posts for other positions.

Juwono, quoting the Army Chief of Staff Gen. Wiranto's comment on the move, said the reshuffle was necessary because there had been a "generational change". The officers who graduated from the Military Academy in the 1970s have now "become important".

"It's just normal that 20 or 25 years after graduating from the academy, they rose to leadership now," Juwono said. (aan)