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.