Kudos to TNI

The Indonesian Military (TNI) must be one of the few institutions whose work and contributions to the emergency relief effort in disaster-stricken areas in Aceh and North Sumatra has not been fully appreciated. There is even the sense that the Indonesian media (including this newspaper) have been giving greater, if not more positive, coverage to the relief efforts of foreign militaries in our own backyard.

This, however, says more about the state-of-the-art equipment (the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier off the coast of Aceh is just too awesome) and, to some extent, the efficiency of the foreign militaries relative to the TNI. It does not say who is doing the most work in Aceh and North Sumatra today, for that would undoubtedly be the TNI.

Is this a case of unfair treatment of our own military?

You could say that. But it is also a reflection of the high expectations many people have placed on the TNI as the nation suffers through the worst of what UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan described as a global catastrophe.

It is also a sign that the nation is looking to the TNI, being literally on the front line in this war against Mother Nature's wrath, to be the first and the most active in lending a hand to the victims of the earthquake and tsunami that struck on Dec. 26.

For all our differences of opinion about the presence of the military command in Aceh, this "territorial structure" means the TNI is the only group in the area that has the organization, personnel, equipment, skill and capability to provide immediate assistance to the victims of disasters. No other organization can match the TNI, not even the civilian provincial administration, which lost a third of its employees.

Did the TNI perform up to expectations? The lack of appreciation given to the military suggests that, in the eyes of many people in this country, it did not. But this is an unfair assessment born more out of ignorance -- and lack of media coverage -- and unfairly high expectations.

The TNI has a disproportionately heavy presence in Aceh because of the ongoing operation to quell the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM). But Mother Nature does not discriminate and the earthquake and tsunami hit members of the TNI and their families, and we suspect some GAM rebels and their families, just as hard as it hit civilian targets. The TNI, like the police and the civilians they are supposed to defend, suffered many losses in this disaster.

Soldiers were confronted with the impossible choice of putting their military duties first or rescuing and protecting their own families. One heroic but rarely told story of this disaster is that many soldiers bravely performed their duties knowing that their own families were in jeopardy.

In the aftermath of the disaster, TNI soldiers were well positioned to conduct rescue operations, to take the injured to hospitals, to administer first aid and to set up tents for the displaced. This they did out of their sense of duty, and in most cases, without the media publicity.

Instead, most of the reports that came out were more about their shortcomings, from their supposed slow response and lack of coordination to suggestions that some officers were selling food aid intended for victims. Some of these reports may have had some truth in them, but they should not negate the big picture, which is that overall the TNI did its job under the most difficult of conditions.

One could always argue, after the fact, that the TNI could, and should, have done a lot more given its strong presence in Aceh. Had it not been for its poor reputation among the people of Aceh, the TNI should even have been given the task of coordinating the entire humanitarian operation currently underway because it is the one organization on the ground that has the capacity and network to do so.

Long before the civilian government in Jakarta made up its mind about coordinating the emergency relief operations, the TNI had already appointed Maj. Gen. Bambang Darmono to coordinate with foreign militaries. The success of the foreign military missions in ferrying relief supplies to the most remote areas on the western coast of Aceh could not have been achieved without direction from the TNI.

For all its faults and shortcomings, our TNI has done what is expected of it and probably a lot more. Many soldiers and their families have made sacrifices for the nation, some even went beyond the call of duty. Their work and contributions to the Aceh humanitarian operation should not only be recognized, but also widely applauded.