End of a chapter

End of a chapter

By disbanding the Coordinating Agency to Support the
Strengthening of National Stability (Bakorstanas) and all its
units in the regions, President Abdurrahman Wahid has closed
another chapter in the military's domination of the government in
this country. Bakorstanas, and even more so its precursor, the
Operational Command for the Restoration of Security and Order
(Kopkamtib), were the tools through which the military exercised
its combined role of defense and politics. These were the
omnipotent agencies through which the military flexed its muscles
so effectively in controlling the country for more than three
decades.

Although it was supposed to have played the role of
coordinator, Bakorstanas was headed at the national level by the
commander-in-chief of the military, and at the regional levels by
the chiefs of the regional military commands. Except at the
national level, where the military chief reported to the
president, the heads of the regional agencies (Bakorstanasda)
became the de facto local rulers, with the power to override the
civilian administrations "in the interests of the nation". In
practice, the agency and its regional units became tools for then
president Soeharto and his military commanders to ensure full
control over the country.

The history of Bakorstanas and its predecessor Kopkamtib is
filled with much blood, all spilled in the name of maintaining
national security. Kopkamtib was established in late 1965 to
bring the nation back from the brink of chaos in the wake of an
abortive coup blamed by the Army on the communists. Soeharto,
then a young Army general, headed the agency and his power was
boosted on March 11, 1966, when then president Sukarno signed
away all his powers, virtually at gunpoint, giving the agency
carte blanche to do whatever was necessary to restore order and
peace.

Things were never the same from that point on. Soeharto used
that power not only to crush the communists, but also to assume
power a year later. Soeharto retained Kopkamtib, which Sukarno
established in a time of emergency, to help him secure his grip
over the country and sustain his power. Kopkamtib became a
ruthless agency which rounded up Soeharto's political opponents,
including student activists in the 1970s and 1980s. The agency's
public notoriety reached such a point that in 1988 Soeharto
replaced Kopkamtib with a new agency, called Bakorstanas.

With a new name and a supposedly more humane face, the new
agency essentially played the same role as Kopkamtib. Like its
predecessor, Bakorstanas and its regional units possessed immense
power that should have raised questions about its legitimacy.

It is only appropriate that President Abdurrahman now has
decided to abolish Bakorstanas, since his democratically elected
government no longer has any use for such an agency. And with the
separation of the National Police from the Indonesian Military
(TNI) last April, internal security should now fall fully under
the authority of the police. There can be no more questions about
who is in charge of internal security during times of noncrisis.
The military's involvement in internal security should be
restricted to when the country, or particular regions, is in a
state of emergency.

By abolishing Bakorstanas, the President has effectively
clipped the power of the military, which many people in the past
meekly accepted. Abdurrahman has done this with little fanfare
and even less prior warning. But this is the same President who
has also single-handedly maneuvered to replace a number of
military top brass whose democratic credentials were dubious,
restoring civil supremacy over the military in the process. This
is the President who has made good on his promise to fight for a
civil society, in a style that often confuses his supporters and
detractors.

If the President is consistent, his next target will be the
complex network of the Army's territorial arms, from the regional
to the district commands. They too overlap with the duties of the
police, and they too have had their share of power abuses.

The President's detractors within the TNI have tried to
portray his maneuverings to bring the military under control as
meddling in their internal affairs. Others have suggested that
the endless criticism of TNI is aimed at destroying the military.
But even the harshest criticism of the military pales in
comparison to the atrocities TNI has committed in the past
against its own people. The military has been guilty of some of
the most heinous crimes, and has literally gotten away with
murder.

It seems far too preposterous to conclude that the President's
maneuvers and the public criticism are part of a systematic
campaign to destroy TNI. No sane citizen, not even those who have
suffered the worst of the military's atrocities, could envisage a
nation without a military. These criticisms reflect the
increasing public demand for greater public accountability from
the military, which is essential in any democracy. They are
intended to pressure TNI to mend its ways. The sooner TNI adapts
to the changing times, the quicker the criticism will dissipate,
and the faster TNI will regain the public's respect.