DPR gives conditional support to higher defense spending

JAKARTA (JP): A commission of the House of Representatives (DPR) yesterday said it backs the Armed Forces (ABRI) call for a 23 percent hike in military spending but stressed the need for the forces to eliminate graft among its members.

The House's Commission I on defense and security said the higher budget should be used to improve the salaries of ABRI members as one measure to end corruption.

During a hearing with Vice Admiral Yusuf Effendi, director general of planning and budget of the Ministry of Defense and Security, the commission said that ABRI's salary is too small considering their responsibilities.

Commission chief Aisyah Aminy said DPR backs the government's reasoning that more money is needed to step up ABRI's ability to perform early detection.

"The meager salaries have tempted ABRI members to get involved in various forms of manipulation and corruption as the defense and security minister has acknowledged," Aisyah said.

The Defense and Security Ministry has proposed a budget of Rp 6.15 trillion ($2.9 billion) for the 1995/96 fiscal year that starts in April. This represents a 23 percent increase.

A number of DPR members said the meager salaries had led some ABRI members, including the police, to corrupt practices, about which the public has often complained.

Legislator Aminullah Ibrahim from the ABRI faction estimates that the average annual take-home pay of an Indonesian soldier was only US$1,800, the lowest in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries. By comparison, the average annual net salary of a Malaysian soldier was as high as US$11,000.

"The small salary has tempted many ABRI members to turn to illicit sources like collusion," he said, adding that a similar allegation had been voiced in a similar meeting with Minister of Defense and Security Minister Edi Sudrajat last week.

Jansen Ibrahim Silaen from the government-backed Golkar said low salaries were partly to blame for poor police service.

"If a farmer seeks a policeman's help in finding his stolen goat, it usually costs him a buffalo," he said sarcastically.

Director General Effendi said human resources development would receive a higher priority than material investment in the coming fiscal year.

Defense spending has increased every year but its proportion of the overall state budget is falling as the government focuses more on economic development, he said.

Indonesia's defense spending is now put at around 1.7 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP), he said.

This year's defense budget of Rp 5 trillion is hardly sufficient to fund maintenance and operation, field supplies and health care.

The tight budget has forced the military to give priority to maintenance of equipment needed for national security.

"Under current budget conditions, it's hard to imagine how we'll build a reliable defense system as stated in the 1993 Guidelines of State Policy," he said. (pan)