No ex-military ministers, urge experts

No ex-military ministers, urge experts

Ridwan max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Two experts have called on president-elect Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono, popularly known by his initials SBY, to avoid
appointing individuals with a military background to his Cabinet
in the interests of professionalism and democracy.

Al Fitra Salam, a political expert at the Indonesian Institute
of Sciences (LIPI), said most of Susilo's constituents had high
hopes for change and improvement.

"The people did not care about Susilo's military background
and the numerous ex-generals in the Susilo-Kalla campaign team,
but they have very high expectations that Susilo will make
changes as he promised during the presidential campaign," Fitra
told The Jakarta Post here over the weekend.

He added such changes would be attainable only if the new
president appointed professionals to his Cabinet.

"SBY should bear in mind that a majority of people have been
deeply traumatized by former president Soeharto's militaristic
New Order regime," he said.

Susilo thus needed prove that despite his military background
he was committed to civilian supremacy and democratic principles,
and his Cabinet lineup would be the key indicator of this
commitment.

Fitri pointed to former American president Dwight D.
Eisenhower as an example, as he had governed according to
democratic principles, despite being ex-military.

Separately, Harun Alrasid, an expert of constitutional law at
the University of Indonesia, said while it was Susilo's
prerogative to appoint his aides, appointing unprofessional
ministers would affect his administration's performance and
credibility.

"The duties of the home ministry should be entrusted to a
civilian who has expertise in public administration and regional
autonomy. If the job is given to an ex-serviceman as has been
done in the past, the domestic political situation will remain
unstable and the implementation of regional autonomy would
continue to raise troubles," he said.

He added the next defense minister should be a civilian, and
Susilo should encourage the completion of internal military
reform, including reviewing the newly endorsed Indonesian
Military bill. Further, in line with reform, the military should
go back to the barracks.

Harun said Susilo needed to form a strong government to face
the House of Representatives, which was dominated by the
Nationhood Coalition of major parties that had not supported
Susilo's presidential bid.

Fitra and Harun agreed that Susilo should give top priority to
eradicating corruption in his initial 100-day program.

"Soeharto will be the litmus test for Susilo in his war on
corruption, since it was not handled properly by Susilo's three
predecessors -- B.J. Habibie, Abdurrahman Wahid and Megawati
Soekarnoputri," they said.

The two also called on the president-elect to set up an
independent team to supervise regional autonomy to avoid discord
between the central and local governments.

Harun added disharmony would continue between the central and
local governments, and between governors and regents/mayors
because of the "unitary state" concept behind the newly revised
Regional Autonomy Law.

"The unitary state system is too idealistic for the large
Indonesian archipelago with our three time zones. Indonesia
should adopt federalism as in the United States, Australia,
Malaysia and Germany to make immediate progress. If federalism is
adopted now, results could be seen in the next 10 years."

The unitary state system will not produce results within the
next 50 years, he said, as was apparent in the 59 years since
independence.