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.