Habibie's toy boys?

Will Gen. Wiranto's questionable plan to deputize 70,000 civilians to join Indonesia's security faction have the effect of ensuring greater law and order throughout Indonesia? Not if the crop of new recruits turns out to be like their older brothers. Armed Forces (ABRI) soldiers and police, those at the junior level who are on duty on the streets, can be very affable when meeting the public. But they seem to function largely without supervision and discipline when they are on duty. How can adding another 70,000 undisciplined and improperly supervised, virtually untrained young men to the streets possibly help the situation? Examples: Discipline? Last May 20 when I moved around Medan to see the street situation for myself, young soldiers were more than happy to chat with me and even to open their rifles to show me what type of bullets they were using, when I asked out of curiosity. I have been in a place of business in Medan when ABRI troops entered and asked the owners for cigarettes and drinks. (Would anyone care to put odds on how many of Medan's Chinese- Indonesian businesspeople feel free to decline these improper requests?) Asking security personnel, police or military, to respond to public lawlessness or crimes-in-process is a study in ignorance of official procedure? Lack of initiative? Cowardice? Recently when I approached on-duty ABRI soldiers at a Medan shopping plaza for assistance after I was stabbed in an attempted mugging, they were too busy smoking to bother about calling the police. Lounging and smoking often seem to be the most compelling activities of soldiers on patrol, even of those assigned to the most public centers of activity such as Jakarta's Jl. Thamrin- Sudirman-Diponegoro triangle. There is no doubt a cadre of very disciplined military at some level. But who are instilling the discipline and sense of commitment in the young ABRI members whose proper performance of duty and sense of national pride is so needed? Maybe if Indonesia's mid-level military commanders spent more time training and supervising their subordinates, and less time sitting on civilian councils and the like, they would have more time for ordinary troop supervision?

Isn't it a little bit of an insult to professional police and military, to suggest that out-of-work youths from the provinces can be integrated into the security forces so effortlessly? Indonesia, having a large population of unemployed, sometimes seems to throw people at problems as a problem-solving technique. Those proposing this solution of throwing a new group of amateur civilians at the problem of public lawlessness should be required to explain their operative assumptions and objectives more explicitly and rationally. Surely Gen. Wiranto is too smart to react in such a knee-jerk fashion to such a serious problem.

DONNA K. WOODWARD

Medan, North Sumatra