Corvette contract to go ahead despite opposition: Navy

Corvette contract to go ahead despite opposition: Navy

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Despite opposition from the Office of the Coordinating Minister
for the Economy and the National Planning Agency (Bappenas), the
Navy will go ahead with its plan to buy two corvettes from a
Dutch shipyard company, Navy chief Admiral Bernard Kent Sondakh
has said.

"We won't go back on it -- the contract has been signed. We
don't have to review it -- they should," Sondakh, his voice
rising with emotion, said on Wednesday.

He said the Navy would postpone the purchase if the government
could not afford it, asserting that it would not cancel the
contract under any circumstances.

"We need it. It will affect our defense capability. We don't
even have a missile," Sondakh said.

It has been become public knowledge that the Indonesian
Military (TNI) suffers from a severe lack of military equipment.

Sondakh signed on Jan. 6 a 270.3 million euro contract with
Dutch shipyard Royal Schelde. He was apparently unaware that
Coordinating Minister for the Economy Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti
had sent a letter to the defense ministry asking for a review of
the plan to buy the corvettes using an export credit facility.

The Navy had earlier suggested that it would use half of the
US$50 million export credit facility to buy the two corvettes
despite the government's decision to allocate all of the funds to
the purchase of several vessels for landing personnel (LPDs).

According to military analyst from the Indonesian Institute of
Sciences (LIPI) Ikrar Nusa Bhakti the dispute was a sign for the
House of Representatives and the People's Consultative Assembly
to review the unhealthy state of relations between the defense
ministry and the TNI.

"This case clearly shows the same mistake being made by TNI,
which is bypassing the defense ministry in the procurement of
military equipment," he told The Jakarta Post.

The purchase of military equipment directly by TNI, instead of
the defense ministry, is a violation of Law No. 3/2002 on
national defense, Ikrar said.

The law stipulates that the military is a state institution,
which is under the authority of the defense ministry. It is the
defense ministry that has the authority to purchase military
equipment.

"It is OK if the TNI suggests to the defense ministry the
equipment needed the most. But, it is the defense ministry that
must make the purchase," he said.

Ikrar saw the corvette dispute as similar to the controversial
purchase of four Sukhoi jet fighters from Russia last year, which
prompted legislators to set up a special inquiry into the case.

The Sukhoi purchase was also made without the approval of the
defense ministry.

The TNI often bypassed the defense ministry when making deals
on military equipment, Ikrar said, particularly during the tenure
of Mahfud MD and Matori Abdul Djalil, both of whom are civilians.

The military considered that the two civilian defense
ministers had insufficient knowledge of military affairs, he
said. This situation was different when Juwono Sudarsono, a noted
military analyst who was formerly deputy governor of the National
Resilience Institute (Lemhanas), was appointed defense minister.

"The military respected him because they considered Juwono
knew military affairs well. What I am trying to say is, the
government must be able to put the right person in the position
in a bid to improve relations between the TNI and the defense
ministry," Ikrar said.

Currently, the defense ministry has been left without a
minister since Matori suffered a stroke seven months ago.
President Megawati Soekarnoputri has refused to replace him and
instead asked already-busy Coordinating Minister for Political
and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to fill in for him
on a temporary basis.