Expert highlights ABRI declining political influence
Expert highlights ABRI declining political influence
JAKARTA (JP): The country's emphasis on economic development
and the growing clout of technocrats are both causing a decline
of Armed Forces (ABRI) control over policymaking processes, says
an expert.
Indonesia-watcher Howard M. Federspiel from Ohio State
University in the United States said here Saturday that the
change of the political map has contributed to the fact that the
military can no longer determine the running of many things
simply by giving or withholding its approval.
According to the professor of political science who has
written a number of books on Indonesia, in the 1970s many
institutions would have simply submitted to ABRI's will.
"Today ABRI can't do that. If they do, businessmen will say,
'o...no, no' and the technocrats will say 'we have to repay our
loans'," Federspiel told participants in a discussion on Islam
and politics at the Center of Community and Islamic Studies here.
Public order is the area where the military's authority
remains stable, he said. It has control over East Timor, for
instance, because there is security problem in the territory.
"But does the military have control over Jakarta? Hardly,
because there's no security issue here," he said.
He explained that the changes were brought about by rapid
development. He pointed out how the buildings of financial
institutions, such as banks and companies, now dominate the
appearance of Indonesian cities.
"Ten years ago, if you drove to an average-sized city in
Indonesia, the first things you'd notice would be government
offices and military structures," he said.
Among Federspiel's books are Popular Literature of the Koran
in Indonesia and The Renewal of Islamic Thought in Indonesia:
Perception of Islam.
Moslems
Federspiel also described the increasingly close relations
that Indonesian Moslems enjoy with the power holders.
He pointed out that, in the beginning, the New Order
administration gave the community only limited opportunities to
express their political aspirations because of the Moslems' own
failure in establishing political clout.
Islam could have emerged as an "extraordinary political power"
had it seized the opportunity created by the downfall of the now-
banned Indonesian Communist Party in the mid-1960s, he said.
Now that Moslems have come full circle in their relationship
with the power holders, with both parties now willing to
accommodate one another, Islam in Indonesia will solidify its
social and economic power.
Led by Moslem intellectuals and professionals, the community
will now place greater demand on the government to recognize
their interests, he said.
He admitted that the rapid development will somehow affect
Moslems' way of life, but not to a great extent. "Indonesian
Moslems will not turn out like the West within the next twenty
years," he said.
"They'll find some way of saying, 'stop, this is far enough.
No further'," Federspiel is also the director of the Indonesian-
Canadian Islamic Higher Education Project at McGill University in
Montreal, Canada. (31)