Putting military 'meat' on diplomatic 'bones'

Putting military 'meat' on diplomatic 'bones'

By Damien Kingsbury

VICTORIA, Australia (JP): Following the successful if largely
symbolic visit by Prime Minister John Howard to President
Megawati Soekarnoputri, the question now facing ministers and
senior bureaucrats in Australia and Indonesia is how to put
policy 'meat' on the repaired diplomatic 'bones'. This will be
the substantial test of how the previously damaged bilateral
relationship develops.

Fleshing out the relationship comes in three guises; aid,
trade and military links. Australia's aid program to Indonesia
remains small compared with some, but comprises a large part of
the Australian aid budget. And it is well targeted and a useful
means of expressing support for the people of the archipelago,
especially in the less developed eastern islands.

In terms of trade, while Indonesia has shown signs of economic
recovery, including a more stable currency, what amounts to a
foreign investment strike continues. And Australia is a part of
that. The reasons include a banking sector and judiciary that
remain untrusted, an enormous and unsustainable level of foreign
debt, and a process of economic decentralization that is in
administrative disarray. A few Australian companies are still in
Indonesia trying to ride out the problems, but they are looking
to a long term future well beyond most shareholders' patience.

But the most difficult area for renewed Australian links with
Indonesia is military cooperation. Even when Australian soldiers
and what might politely be called Indonesian "irregulars" were
shooting at each other along the border of East Timor a year ago,
senior officers at the Indonesian army's staff training and
command college (Seskoad) at Bandung were expressing a desire to
resume military links.

That call was repeated, during the visit to Jakarta, to Howard
by the recently reappointed Coordinating Minister for Political
and Security Affairs, (retired Lt-Gen.) Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
Yudhoyono was the primary architect of the Indonesian military's
"New Paradigm", which was intended to reform and depoliticize the
armed forces. He remains close to the core officer group of the
military (TNI), and on both the subject of reform and renewing
links with the Australian Defense Force (ADF) their views are
essentially the same.

There are three reasons for the TNI wanting to rebuild links
with an army they have, on the surface, been hostile towards. The
first reason is that there are genuine skills to be learned. The
second and more important reason is that, cut off from U.S.
military aid, the TNI sees links with the Australian Defense
Force as being a "back door" to the United States. This is
especially so at a time when US Secretary of Defense, Donald
Rumsfeld is trying to convince Congress to resume US military aid
to the TNI, and Australian assessment is increasingly seen as the
barometer of Indonesian politics.

The third reason for wanting to renew links is because two
countries with military cooperation are much less likely to want
to attack each other. For all the paranoia that can exist in
Australia, there is no desire in Indonesia for military
confrontation with Australia, or anyone else. The TNI exists
primarily to maintain Indonesia's territorial integrity. And, for
resuming military ties, that is the problem.

Ties were cut, from Australia's perspective, because of the
TNI's role in the mayhem surrounding the East Timor ballot of
1999. There was also earlier disquiet about training with TNI
special forces (Kopassus) and the internally repressive use to
which much of that training was put. And there continues to be
problems with TNI activity in West Papua, Aceh and elsewhere.

Hence, ahead of Australia's coming elections, neither the
government nor the Opposition will want to commit to this
controversial issue. But, after November, it is almost inevitable
that whoever is in government in Australia will move cautiously
towards re-establishing military links. The question will be,
however, what form should such links take?

If support for Indonesia's developing democracy is to be
meaningful, renewed training links with Kopassus will remain off
limits. In simple terms, Kopassus has been far too active in
dirty tricks campaigns against Indonesia's own citizens.
Australians would be rightly disturbed if the ADF's Special Air
Service Regiment was helping them to do that.

Renewed links initially are likely to take the form of support
for maritime surveillance and, increasing their role in civil
affairs, for the national police. Beyond that, officer training
might be useful, especially if the training was not with the ADF
but through the universities that provide post-graduate education
to the ADF. TNI officers, it seems, need to learn less about
tactics and strategies than they do about management, control and
political principle. In this they would benefit from undertaking
post-graduate work in an areas that focus on how to best assist
local communities through development programs.

Even with such "soft options", no matter what form renewed
military links take, they will remain politically unacceptable to
most in Australia while the Indonesian government seeks military
as opposed to political solutions to its regional problems. But
perhaps carefully targeted education, as opposed to "training",
might assist in helping the TNI fulfill its reformist "New
Paradigm".

Dr Damien Kingsbury is senior lecturer in international
development at Deakin University, Geelong. He recently co-edited,
with professor Arief Budiman, 'Indonesia: The Uncertain
Transition (Crawford House, 2001).