General calls for defense doctrine

Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesia urgently needs a doctrine on state defense to identify all internal and external threats to its territorial integrity and to manage its defense forces, a retired general says.

Sudrajat, a retired Army major-general and a former director general of defense strategy at the Ministry of Defense, said Indonesia could no longer rely on the current defense policy and deterrence system amid the changing threats and strategic environment.

"We do need a (new) defense doctrine and a review of the deterrence system in line with the changing threats ... The defense doctrine will have to present a new concept on how the defense system will be managed well, effectively and efficiently," he told a seminar on defense organized by the Centre for Strategic International Studies (CSIS) on Wednesday.

Sudrajat, who will soon assume the post of Indonesian ambassador to China, said that following the end of Cold War, traditional threats have shifted to those related to domestic problems such as secessionist movements, communal and sectarian conflicts.

"In countering the separatist movements in Aceh and Papua and communal conflicts in other regions, security authorities can no longer deploy expensive jet fighters and tanks," said, predicting that Indonesia would not face any military attack by other countries within the next 10 to 15 years.

He added that Indonesia also needed to improve the professionalism of its defense forces and enhance its bilateral and multilateral cooperation with other countries in the Southeast Asian region in countering transnational crimes, such as human trafficking, smuggling, piracy, illegal fishing and many other external threats.

During the current reform era, Sudrajat said, Indonesia had enacted two new laws -- one on state defense and another on the Indonesia Military (TNI) -- and a white book on defense, but none detailed how a deterrence system should be managed well, what kinds of arsenals were needed at present and how the military could be deployed effectively and efficiently.

He said the defense system should be designed by the President as the TNI supreme commander, the National Defense Board and the House of Representatives.

It should regulate what kinds of arms were needed, how they should be procured and how the military was deployed in accordance with its deterrent, rehabilitative and enforcement functions, he said.

"So far, there has been no policy on arsenal procurement. We have purchased jet fighters from U.S., Britain and Russia with high prices and paid high maintenance costs, while they are no longer relevant to current threats. It's not only the military but also the House of Representatives, which should be the only institutions granted the political authority for the military buildup," he said.

Andi Widjayanto, a military analyst from the University of Indonesia, concurred, saying Indonesia's existing deterrence system was ineffective and inefficient because of the presence of 137 often incompatible or incomplete weapons systems.

"The arsenals are not effective because they do not match with the changing strategic environment in the defense field, and they are not efficient because we have recruited and trained a numerous number of personnel to operate them and spent much money to maintain them," he said.