Ministry seeks defense funds payout
Ministry seeks defense funds payout
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Ministry of Defense wants an additional Rp 530.27 billion
(US$55.23 million), which it requested last week to cover the
costs of military operations in Aceh, to be disbursed by the end
of this month.
But these high expectations may be misplaced, with a member of
the House of Representatives' budgetary committee describing the
request as "impossible" and "ridiculous".
Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono said on Wednesday that he
hoped the request would be approved by Thursday.
The funds, he said, would be used to support soldiers
stationed or deployed to the troubled province of Aceh for
another round of six-month security operations that will begin in
July.
"Currently, we are dealing with reconstruction and
rehabilitation projects and security will be the main demand for
all parties there.
"Of course, we have to redeploy the troops, and such
mobilizations will require some funds," Juwono told reporters on
the sidelines of a visit to the first division of the Army's
Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) in Cilodong, Bogor, West
Java.
Based on a letter to the House dated on June 22, the defense
ministry asked for Rp 530.27 billion in additional funds for
military purposes in Aceh, Rp 314.8 billion of which will be used
to support security operations, and the remainder to procure
supplies for soldiers.
The government has said it would not pull out the 35,000
troops from the tsunami-ravaged province, despite the change in
its status from "civil emergency" to "civil order" on May 18.
The decision to keep the military personnel in place, it
added, was to crush the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebel group that
was still active and continues to pose security threats.
However, the request for additional funds has failed to meet
standing procedures, especially because the defense ministry did
not append this request on its post in the revision of the 2005
state budget.
"Because Aceh has been given a normal status, according to the
TNI (Indonesian Military) law, all funds must come from the state
budget specifically allocated for the ministry," said Djoko
Susilo, a member of the House budgetary committee.
He said that in emergency situations, funds to finance
military operations should be disbursed from the emergency post.
"But in their latest proposal, it's not clear which post they
expect us to disburse the money from. They didn't even give
complete details on what they will do with the money," Djoko
said, adding that the ministry was neither well-organized nor
well-prepared.
He said the budgetary committee and the ministry were
scheduled to resume discussions about the issue on Thursday.
Criticism was also raised by sociologist Otto Syamsuddin Ishak
from the Syahkuala University, who said the government must
allocate funds from the state budget to cover the current
deployment of troops -- as well as the police -- in Aceh, and not
from other sources, including emergency funds.
"The disbursement of funds from the state budget legitimizes
the presence of security personnel in Aceh. The proposal for some
funds from another source, that of the emergency funds, just
shows that the presence of the military in Aceh has no legal
basis anymore," Otto told The Jakarta Post.
Otto also said that efforts to strengthen the military's power
in Aceh would be counter-productive to the ongoing peace process
between the government and GAM in Helsinki, in which one of the
key points is to reach a cease-fire agreement aimed at stopping
or reducing the decades-old hostilities.