Eliminate overlapping duties of TNI, police

Eliminate overlapping duties of TNI, police

M. Riefqi Muna, Defense Analyst The RIDEP Institute, Jakarta,
riefqi@gmx.net

The battle between the police force and the airborne battalion
of the Army Strategic Reserves (Kostrad) in Binjai, North Sumatra
was clearly not an isolated case. Since Jan. 2001, the country
has witnessed at least 12 clashes between its military personnel
and police force, not to mention smaller cases, which did not
involve guns or a battle between the two.

There must be something wrong with our security system.
Security officers tend to negate the systematic problem by
blaming each other, based on a narrow sense of l'esprit de corps.
Just a day after the Binjai clash, in a discussion with several
middle-ranking military officials blamed the incident on the
arrogance of police officers, who made the soldiers angry.

The police cited intervention from military officers when the
former was handling a case, with the military demanding the
release of suspects in police custody.

Police and military leaders claim to be the defenders of their
beloved Indonesia. But people laugh; All citizens simply carry
out their specific duties.

The Binjai case and the tarnished image of the Indonesian
Military (TNI) are, of course, counterproductive for the future
direction of our Armed Forces. Military and civilian leaders need
to move quickly to push forward military/defense reform without
further delay. Otherwise we will be without a proper security and
defense system, which the law no. 3/2000 on national defense says
is to secure sovereignty, territory and to protect people.

The involvement of the police and military personnel in extra
income-generating activities is conducted either through legal
foundations or cooperatives, or done illegally, such as backing
the drug business (as in Binjai), illegal logging, gambling,
prostitution or smuggling diamonds.

The classic argument is the low military budget. It was not
surprising to hear that officials of the Indonesian Bank
Restructuring Agency (IBRA) need to pay trillions of rupiah to
several regional military commands (Kodam) for protection.

Military members engaged in these extra income-earning
activities are not exactly mercenaries. Nor are the military or
police like gangsters battling over a territory providing them
with security fees. So what is wrong with them?

References to oknum ("unscrupulous members") of the security
forces when their negative activities are exposed is escaping the
real problem; It reflects the inflated pride of a corps, an
attitude which has contributed to a culture of impunity.

How could one battalion or a company of troops just be oknum?
Still fresh in our minds is the murder of a Papuan leader, Theys
Hiyo Eluway, which implicated several of the Army's Special Force
(Kopassus) members, the rampage in East Timor and so on. All this
needs to be corrected as we urgently need dedicated soldiers who
can protect our sovereignty, the territory and the people.

What about the military's function of command, control,
communication and intelligence? Are they paralyzed? Where is the
Soldiers' Pledge and the Sapta Marga, the seven TNI principles?
Have they become detached from their roots, their fellow
citizens?

TNI's anniversary of Oct. 5 is the best time to reflect on a
feasible and alternative solution toward a better and proper
defense system. Firing and jailing soldiers involved in
gangsterism and in cases like Binjai are merely the proper
penalties for violators of military conduct and ethics. It is a
rule of thumb in the TNI, for instance, that weaponry cannot be
taken without proper procedures, and that its use is only for a
proper cause.

However, the basic problem is the overlapping of security
personnel on the ground and the confrontation of interests
between the military and police.

The problem is related to the overall policy in our defense
system that has not yet changed despite TNI's declared reform.
The only progress has been the separation of the police from the
TNI, the instruction that active members withdraw from posts in
the bureaucracy and the independency of the TNI/police during the
1999 election.

However, TNI's new paradigm of redefinition, reposition and
reactualization is still political. The primary focus is for the
TNI to exert influence in the political process as well being
ready to share nondefense roles with civilians.

This is still incompatible to the democratic principle of
civil control over the military, where the civil political elite
make guidelines and policies for strategic levels of defense to
be obeyed by the military.

The only solution is the reorientation of our defense policy,
to enable the protection of the world's largest archipelagic
state. Yet the policy is still based on the strategic romanticism
of pre-independence strategy to fight the colonial power -- a
revolutionary war, a guerrilla warfare strategy -- which is
focused on land. However, strategies in warfare on the land, the
seas or in the air need to also change due to revolutionary
changes in military affairs.

A continuation of our land-based strategy is inadequate not
only for the future, but right now! One consequence of this
continued strategy is the prolonged territorial command structure
(Koter), the TNI's backbone in politics and business. The Koter
is believed to be a source of non-budgetary funds taken from
security services as well as other protection service methods.

Hence, our future defense policy needs to be redefined to
boost the dismal protection of our territorial boundaries. This
has to become a major concern for our strategic planners despite
our "multidimensional crises". What is needed is a national
defense strategy that is no longer based on private or group
interests but on our national security interests.

First, we have to reconstitute our territorial defense, which
is based on the threat assessment in war games. The territorial
structure needs to be replaced by models of joint forces/command
between the Army, Air Force and Navy and perhaps only five to
seven regional defense structures are needed across the country.
Current territorial structures contradict changes in military
affairs, especially considering the country's geography.

Second, TNI's doctrine and organization need to be reformed.
The military doctrine, which is basically political, needs to be
changed into a normal military doctrine. There is a lack of
serious will at the TNI Headquarters to change its doctrine. It
needs to be directed to have a professional military, not only in
the technicalities of combat, but also in the philosophical basis
of the profession -- mainly the acceptance of civil authority in
a democratic state. Training needs to be directed to meet these
technical and philosophical demands.

Third, the military reform needs a leader -- both in the
civilian and military population -- who is committed to reform
and does not only abuse reformist rhetoric or actions for power
games.

If civilian leaders are not capable of steering reform and its
commitment to clean governance, this will also hamper military
reform. Pro-reform leaders are also needed within the Air Force,
the Navy and the Army. Antireform leaders will only destroy the
future defense system, especially if they are more interested in
keeping cozy relations with the country's chief executive.

Defense reform needs a serious and honest strategy and defense
review, currently conducted by the Ministry of Defense. The key
is commitment to reform and understanding the objectives of the
country in an interdependent world. However, one retired general
and former army chief of staff told me that "we cannot pin hopes
on the top brass, they are over-contaminated".

He added, "We should focus on the younger (members) and those
who are of a middle rank." But can we speed up the much-needed
reform of the TNI? This would need a patriotism of a new kind
from among our top brass, the heroic generals who flee with
impunity when they should be brought to justice.

This kind of behavior is not that of patriotic generals, but
of corporals with stars on their shoulders. If we can focus on
defense reform, further damage of the military can be stopped.
People can then be proud of a TNI that is really able to protect
the people.

The writer is also a Research Fellow at the Indonesian
Institute of Sciences (LIPI) in Jakarta.