Gradual removal of military territorial commands sought

JAKARTA (JP): Military observers called on Tuesday for gradual removal of the Indonesian Military (TNI) territorial commands and demanded TNI quit its interference in the civil government's decision-making policy.

The Alliance of Young Researchers on Civil-Military Relations said in a media conference that the action should be taken as a consequence of TNI's past involvement in politics and government affairs.

One of the researchers, Anas Saidi, said TNI's territorial commands were the source of its power and instruments of human rights abuses as the commands had performed as a shadow government for the civil administration.

"The measure should be implemented gradually as we have to be conscious of the future of the personnel in the military commands and ensure that the commands are not involved in local administration affairs.

"Meanwhile, the regional military commands (Kodam) are not supposed to be stationed in the capitals of the provinces," he said while disclosing the results of its recent survey on civil- military relations.

The research queried 16,223 respondents residing in provinces under the jurisdiction of the Jakarta Military Command -- the Siliwangi Military Command overseeing West Java province, the Brawijaya Military Command overseeing East Java, the Udayana Military Command overseeing Bali, East and West Nusa Tenggara provinces and the Tanjungpura Military Command overseeing the four Kalimantan provinces.

The survey, held through random sampling, found that a majority of the respondents allowed the provisional presence of the military commands as they could provide safety and security to the public. But they demanded that the commands be replaced by police as soon as that institution was capable of taking over the responsibility.

The respondents also rejected military involvement in the executive and legislative bodies.

Quoting results of the survey, Anas said TNI's involvement in businesses should be controlled by the state, suggesting that there should be public accountability for TNI's non-budgetary funds.

"We have found that TNI's involvement in businesses has distorted the market as they 'carry arms' while running the businesses.

"We recommend that the businesses be converted into state enterprises to ensure public accountability and transparency," he said.

"Just like other countries in transition to democracy, isolating the military from politics will only make the force jump into businesses," he added.

Anas, however, reminded that while the state restructures the military commands, it also has to eliminate militaristic behavior from society, especially paramilitary organizations practicing military procedures and wearing uniforms.

"We can also see people using the military's repressive approach in settling their problems," he said. (bby)