Military systems
Military systems
If I am not mistaken, the visiting U.S. defense secretary
said: "If the military remains in power in Indonesia, diplomatic
sanctions and an economic embargo will be slapped on Indonesia".
His statement was reported during the Sept. 29 SCTV private
television evening news broadcast.
There may well be a basic difference concerning the "military"
in the United States and in Indonesia. In the U.S., the military
constitutes troops as a real part of a hierarchical command
system. They perform a sole function and are real professionals.
They are not contaminated by any dual or multifunctions. It is
clear that they are under the hierarchical system of people's
sovereignty. In the language of an advanced society, they are
under the democratic management of a civilian government. In
terms of the theory and practice of a state system, the former is
a subsystem of the latter, and not the other way around.
The U.S. system of democracy does not recognize a method of
appointment, a method which contaminates democracy. In short,
"from the people, by the people and for the people". It seems
that recruitment in all institutions labeled with the term
"people" must be through fair and transparent elections. Soldiers
are assigned to face foreign foes; they are not supposed to be
"hostile" to their own people or treat people as their enemies.
Should there be enemies at home, then the state's police will
deal with them; the police will definitely not resort to
repressive methods. Explanations like "procedural mistakes on the
part of civilians" does not seem to exist in the vocabulary of
U.S. soldiers, although it might have existed at the time of
roughneck soldiers.
In our country since 1966 the hierarchical system of people's
sovereignty has been under the control of the military system.
With their dual function, soldiers do not seem to prepare
themselves against foreign foes but rather concern themselves
with domestic sociopolitical affairs, the turf of civilians. For
over three decades and maybe more, the people as a whole have
experienced the impact of the dual function of the armed forces.
This impact must have been monitored and detected by other
nations. Remember that the intelligence agencies of the U.S.,
Britain and France, to name only a few, are second to none.
Directly or otherwise, it seems that East Timor will be used
by other nations which care to "straighten out" democracy
Indonesian-style to conform to the democracy which generally
applies around the world. This is the first thing to take note
of. The second is that the majority of our nation's elite often
forget or pretend to overlook the fact that the essential parts
of the Constitution drawn up by our founding fathers are positive
as they have as their origin in the constitutions of advanced
nations. Unfortunately, our ruling regimes since 1959 have not
been able to apply these essential parts of the constitution.
In the case of nations like Iraq which have been subjected to
diplomatic sanctions or economic embargoes, the impact is not
felt by the ruling regime, who is only a minority, but by the
majority of civilians who suffer both spiritually and materially.
A library study shows that the best choice for members of the
People's Consultative Assembly, the majority of whom are
civilians, now convened for the General Session should be to use
the prerogative right of a global civil society to correct any
irregularities. Make sure that everything conforms to
international standards because failure in this mission will mean
depriving the Indonesian people of any possible benefits.
SUNGKOWO SOKAWERA
Bandung, West Java