House wants TNI under defense ministry

House wants TNI under defense ministry

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The powerful Indonesian Military (TNI) is likely to remain under
the control of the president, with most factions in the House of
Representatives (DPR) saying they wanted to maintain the status
quo on Thursday.

Only the National Awakening Party (PKB) faction insisted on
proposing the TNI be placed under the control of the defense
ministry in order to further strengthen the supremacy of the
civilian administration.

PKB faction spokesman Effendi Choirie said putting the TNI
under the supervision of the Ministry of Defense would uphold the
principle of civil supremacy.

The PKB's stance on this issue has been backed by pro-
democracy and human rights groups.

Other factions and the government said the TNI should continue
to remain under presidential control. However, there was
disagreement over whether the military's administrative and
strategic affairs should be coordinated by the defense ministry.

The disagreement prompted lawmakers deliberating the
controversial TNI bill to bring the issue to a closed-door
meeting on Thursday for lobbying.

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the
leader of the largest faction in the House, argued the deployment
of military forces should remain under the control of the
president as the supreme commander.

"The TNI's management, organization, strategy and
administration, however, should be under coordination of the
defense ministry," PDI-P faction spokesman Ahmad Baskara said.

Golkar Party faction spokesman Hajriyanto Y. Thohari agreed
the TNI should remain under the president, but called for the
Ministry of Defense's coordination role to be made clearer.

The United Development Party (PPP), the National Mandate
Party, the Prosperous Justice Party, the Crescent Star Party and
the TNI/Police faction, and the government also backed the
proposal of the PDI-P led by President Megawati Soekarnoputri.

"We will not insist on asking the House factions to accept our
idea. We agree with the PDI-P faction's proposal," said TNI
commander Gen. Endriartono Sutarto who was involved in the bill's
deliberation.

The TNI's position in the state administration is one of the
crucial issues arising in the government-sponsored TNI bill.

Defense and military analysts have recommended the TNI be put
under the defense ministry's control to avoid overlapping in
policy-making.

Currently, the TNI is directly subordinate to the president,
while the TNI chief has the same status as a cabinet minister.
The chief is entitled to attend Cabinet sessions and those held
by the office of the coordinating minister for political and
security affairs.

Analysts say this arrangement has often created overlaps in
policy-making between the TNI headquarters and the Ministry of
Defense.

The arrangement meant the TNI leadership could reject the
Ministry of Defense bill on the military and draft its own bill.

Another contentious issue was the inclusion of the TNI's
territorial function in Article 1 of the bill, which has widely
been rejected by human rights and prodemocracy groups. Activists
say the function, which stations military personnel throughout
the country in posts at every level of civilian administration,
has been abused by soldiers who were using their offices to run
illegal operations.

The proposal made by the TNI/Police faction was also rejected
by the PKB. Other factions called for a clearer definition of
which territorial affairs would be managed by the military.

The TNI/Police faction says the TNI's territorial function
should be defined as managing human and national resources as a
force to support the military's main defense role.

The contention also prompted lawmakers to bring this article
to a closed-door meeting.