Indonesia pays $1.8m for grounded jet fighter in the U.S.
Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government had paid more than US$1.8 million during the past 10 years to house a grounded jet fighter in the United States after Washington placed a military embargo on Indonesia, a legislator claimed.
Assembled in 1980, the Air Force's F-5 aircraft was purchased from Israel in the early 1990s but had to be overhauled some time later in a warehouse near Los Angeles, House of Representatives lawmaker Djoko Susilo said on Wednesday.
Djoko, who has just returned from Washington, said Indonesia had to pay $15,000 per month to rent the space. The procurement and the decision to have the jet overhauled had been facilitated by an Indonesian contractor, he said.
The repairs to the plane took a couple of years, during which time the U.S. government enforced the military embargo. It meant that the U.S. would not import or release any military hardware to Indonesia, including the aircraft, he said.
The embargo was included in the U.S. Leahy amendment, which was instituted after the 1991 St. Cruz incident in East Timor when Indonesian troops shot to death several pro-independence protesters.
While acknowledging that no one could have seen the embargo coming, Djoko questioned the decision to overhaul the jet fighter in the U.S. instead of in other closer countries, and blamed the Indonesian contractor for the oversight.
"The government, whether it was the then ministry of defense and security or the Air Force, should have held the contractor accountable for the decision. We could have had it repaired in a closer country instead of the U.S.
"We've been paying a lot for virtually nothing. The jet is probably just pieces of rubble now, while we could have used the money to build better dormitories or housing for our soldiers," he said.
Asked where the rent money came from, Djoko said it was likely to have been allocated in the Ministry of Defense's budget.
Djoko, a National Mandate Party (PAN) legislator, sits on the House Commission I on security and foreign affairs. He said he would summon the defense minister and the Indonesian Military top brass to clarify the matter.
Air Force spokesman First Marshall Sagoe Tambun said the rent money did not come from the Air Force's budget, He said he believed it was the Indonesian contractor that had paid the rent.
"I'm almost certain the rent money is not from our budget. We have a very limited budget, so why would we spend it on warehouse rental? Besides, the Ministry of Finance would have questioned us about it. There must have been some kind of agreement between the government and the contractor to anticipate such a situation, but I'd have to dig it up first," he said.
Tambun, who did not remember the name of the contractor, said there was almost nothing Jakarta could do about this because Washington had refused to relax its policy. Indonesia would likely have to spend more money to carry out tests on the jet when it was eventually used because it had been grounded for years, he said
He said the jet was repaired in the U.S. because the country had sophisticated facilities and qualified service personnel. The decision to repair it there was not the defense contractors', he said.