Reshuffling TNI
Reshuffling TNI
The changes in the leadership of the Indonesian Military (TNI)
as announced on Friday proved to be somewhat of an anticlimax for
most political pundits. Most of their predictions, which kept the
media busy over the past week, turned out to be widely off the
mark.
All in all, the 102 changes look very much like an ordinary
military tour of duty. None of them carry significant political
implications for the institution, which has been under strong
pressure to carry out thorough internal reforms and to quit the
political arena.
Many of the widely rumored changes never materialized. Lt.
Gen. Agus Wira Hadikusumah, the chief of the Army's Strategic
Reserves Command and the target of much speculation, keeps his
job. Both Army Chief of Staff Gen. Tyasno Sudarto and TNI chief
Admiral Widodo AS also stay where they are. Nothing in the
changes suggest a purge of what pundits call the "Wiranto
clique", so named after the once-powerful TNI chief.
Probably the only instance where pundits got it right was the
removal of Maj. Gen. Saurip Kadi from the post of territorial
assistant to the Army chief of staff. Saurip, who has been
reassigned to Army headquarters without a specific portfolio,
hosted in April what has come to be known as the "Bulak Rantai
clandestine meeting" after the Army officers' housing complex in
East Jakarta.
While Saurip and other top Army officers have denied that
there was such a meeting, his removal from a key post suggests
there was more to it than his claim that the gathering was held
with close Army friends to mark a recent rank promotion. In the
absence of any credible explanation, his removal will likely
become the target of even more speculation.
Another significant appointment announced on Friday was the
selection of Col. I Made Yasa, a Hindu Balinese, as chief of the
regional military command in Maluku, a province that has been
raked by violent conflicts between Muslims and Christians. He
replaces Brig. Gen. Max Markus Tamaela, whom many Muslims feel
had not been impartial in solving the conflict.
It remains to be seen how well I Made Yasa will do in his new
assignment. Indonesia cannot afford another failure. Many people
in Maluku are already losing confidence in the ability of the
government and the military to end the sectarian conflict.
Muslims outside Maluku have sent a jihad force, and many
Christians in Maluku have been urging the United Nations to send
in a neutral international peacekeeping force.
While Made Yasa's appointment is very important, it has not
generated as much public interest as the ongoing political
intrigue surrounding the political appointments in TNI. The
public fixation on the political face of TNI, especially the
appointment of top jobs, is a legacy of the New Order era, when
the military was an important component of the regime.
Because of the political power TNI once wielded, speculating
about who is in and who is on his way out in the military has
become a national pastime. The fact that this fixation still runs
deeply today suggests that the military is still regarded as a
powerful political institution, even after its wings have been
clipped.
The power that the military apparently still enjoys makes it a
target of political intervention by other political groups trying
woo its support. One cannot help feel that in spite of its
promise to quit politics, some TNI leaders continue to use their
power to further their own political agenda. This is why rumors
about the intrigues within TNI have been rife this past week.
No matter how many times TNI tries to explain that changes in
its top rungs are routine tours of duty, the public will continue
to regard them in political terms and think upon the consequences
they have on the country's political life. Some day changes at
TNI's top will be accepted by the public for what they are:
routine tours. That day, however, will only come when TNI has
left the political arena completely and become a truly
professional military force.