Military retains resources to make come back: Report

Military retains resources to make come back: Report

JAKARTA (JP): Despite its waning political influence, the
military -- especially the Army -- retains several "political
resources" which could enable it to come back in the future, an
international policy research group warned in a recent report.

The Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) said in a
26-page report titled Indonesia: Keeping the Military Under
Control that those resources were the Army's relatively intact
territorial structure, significant control over domestic
political intelligence and access to substantial sources of funds
that were not subject to external scrutiny.

ICG said that through its territorial structure, the Army
maintains the military units in every province, district and
subdistrict throughout the country.

"This provides it with the means to influence political
developments at every level of the government," the report, which
was released early this month, said.

Indonesian Military (TNI) comprises Army, Navy and Air Force,
with personnel numbering around 500,000. The Army is predominant.

The report said that during the three-decade rule of former
president Soeharto, territorial troops were used "to break
strikes, remove villagers from their land, crush student protests
and, every five years, ensure overwhelming Golkar victories in
general elections".

"As long as this territorial structure remains in place, the
Army leadership will have at their disposal an instrument that
has been used in the past to further the military's political
objectives and could be used again," it said.

It added that the Army's strong representation in state and
military intelligence agencies was also significant as they
continued to focus on domestic political and social affairs.

"The intelligence agencies undoubtedly made a crucial
contribution to the durability of the New Order regime. They were
used during the Soeharto era to repress political opposition,"
the report said, referring to the State Intelligence Coordinating
Agency (Bakin) and the Strategic Intelligence Agency (Bais),
previously known as the Armed Forces Intelligence Agency (BIA).

It said that "the culture of Bais in the past was far from
democratic, with military intelligence officers prominent among
those who were alleged to have been involved in human rights
abuses".

ICG said it was also widely believed in "Jakarta elite
circles" that officers associated with Bais were among those who
may be stirring up ethnic and other violence as a means to
destabilize civilian government".

"As long as the intelligence agencies remain dominated by
military officers whose values and attitudes were shaped during
the Soeharto era, the democratization process will remain
vulnerable to the kind of black operations that they have
commonly sponsored in the past," it said.

Last but not least, ICG said, access to finances is a crucial
political resource military officers continue to have.

It said that as long as the state budget supplies only 25
percent to 30 percent of the required funds, military units will
continue to seek funding from other sources.

"This opens up the possibility that military commanders can
gain access to large sums of money that could be used to finance
political operations," the ICG report said.

ICG therefore said that it was necessary for the government to
ensure that "non-budgetary funds are properly supervised by an
agency outside the military itself", such as the State Audit
Agency (BPK).

ICG was quick to note in the report, however, that despite
these political resources, "it is not possible for the military
to regain control of the government in the near future".

"It is too far fragmented to act cohesively; it lacks
confidence in its capacity to provide answers to Indonesia's
manifold challenges; and most importantly, its leaders know that
any attempt to restore its political power would almost certainly
trigger massive demonstrations throughout the country, which
could easily turn into riots - which they are unsure, in turn, of
their capacity to handle," ICG said.

It concluded that strong and effective civilian institutions
were the best guarantee against the return of the military.

"If civilian government is successful, the military is not
likely to challenge civilian authority," it said.

Founded five years ago, the ICG is a private, multinational
organization committed to strengthening the international
community to anticipate and understand conflicts as well as
working at preventing and containing them.

The full report on the Indonesian Military, as well as two
earlier ones on the political crisis in Indonesia and the Maluku
conflict, are available from ICG's website: www.crisisweb.org

ICG board members include former Indian prime minister Inder
Gujral, former Israeli prime minister and 1994 Nobel laureate
Shimon Peres, renowned businessman George Soros and Indonesian
lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis.

The organization currently operates field projects in nine
crisis-affected countries worldwide: Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Albania, Macedonia, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Algeria,
Burundi, Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia.
(byg)