Government muscles in on military businesses
Government muscles in on military businesses
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
To enforce the new law on the military, the government will start
taking over all military businesses in an endeavor to make the
Indonesian Military (TNI) professional and help improve the
welfare of its personnel.
State Minister of State Enterprises Sugiharto said on Tuesday
that he had recently held talks with relevant officials to
discuss the possibility of putting the management of all military
business entities under his supervision.
"Three weeks ago we held a coordination meeting with
Minister of Justice and Human Rights Hamid Awaluddin and Minister
of Defense Juwono Sudarsono on the possibility of transferring
the management of military business entities to our office," he
said on the sidelines of a one-day summit on state-owned
enterprises.
He said he had asked minister Juwono to provide in detail a
list of all enterprises belonging to the Army, the Navy, the Air
Force and the TNI Headquarters in order to obtain accurate data
on military businesses either in the form of companies,
foundations or cooperatives.
However, the coordination meeting involving the three
ministers did not formulate any mechanism for the companies'
future management, Sugiharto added.
He could not say when the management transfer would begin,
which enterprises would first be taken over or whether military
personnel would be allowed to be part of the enterprises' new
management.
Since president Soeharto's downfall in 1998, the civilian
government has been pressured to take over the military
businesses in order to complete the internal reforms inside the
TNI.
Law No. 32/2004 on the TNI stipulates that the government must
take over all business activities of the military within the next
five years as part of sweeping reforms within the powerful
military.
The law, signed by former president Megawati Soekarnoputri in
October, strictly bans soldiers from involvement in any business
activities to make the military institution professional and to
ensure all military personnel focus on their defense role.
The TNI has been involved in numerous businesses since the
beginning of Soeharto's New Order era in 1970 because the
government was unable to meet the military's financial needs.
Almost 70 percent of the TNI's annual budget comes from its
business activities.
Minister Juwono recently said the government would take over
only enterprises that had assets worth Rp 5 billion (US$550,000)
or more while smaller ones would continue to be run by the TNI.
His statement sparked strong reactions from major factions in
the House of Representatives, which want the TNI to abandon all
business activities to make it professional.
Assets of the business enterprises owned by the military range
from Rp 1 billion to Rp 5 trillion.