RI-Australian security pattern

RI-Australian security pattern

By Soedibyo

The following article is based on a paper presented at a
seminar on regional security organized by the Foreign Affairs
Ministry in Yogyakarta recently.

YOGYAKARTA (JP): For the first time, after 50 years of
independence, Indonesia, a founding member of the Non-Aligned
Movement and following an independent and active foreign policy,
has signed a security agreement with Australia, her southern
neighbor, a country with a tradition of a western strategic
outlook.

The agreement, which is too general in its formulation,
invites many comments and interpretations. This paper seeks to
examine the principle features of the agreement based on national
doctrine. There are three major issues involved in the
interpretation of the agreement. First, the question of what is
meant by "security", not only how it should be defined, but more
essentially what factors influenced it. Second, there is the
question of how national security and regional security are
related to each other. Third, Australia's position related to
Indonesia's national security and regional security

"National Resilience" is an Indonesian national doctrine of
survival and self-preservation, which is a guidance for
development and for pursuing the "common objectives of states",
which are:

* self-preservation, a state's desire for existence and
preservation, believed to be the highest value;

* security, in a condition of interdependence, is defined as
mutual acceptance of common values, which does not imply imposing
one's value against another by coercive means, either militarily,
or economically. Security experience by one state is not at the
expense of that of others;

* ideology, provides a state with an identity. Ideology is
fundamental in the concept of self-preservation of the state. It
provides the nation-state with a strong base for domestic
legitimacy. The state ideology and norms must manifest itself in
the daily conduct of nationhood;

* wellbeing, based on the national ideology. becomes the next
basic objective after self-preservation and security have been
satisfied. Wellbeing is pursued through economic activities, and,
because of its own dynamics, it forces states to interact with
each other. Interaction provides a major behavioral force to
harmonize with the regional political and economic system.
Disparity in wellbeing, whether internal or external (regional),
could become a source of instability;

* strength, as a state, neither depends on, nor correlate with
power. Weak and strong powers habitually refer to the traditional
distinction among states in respect to their military and their
economic relative capabilities. The principal distinguishing
feature of a state's strength is the low level of concern strong
nations have with domestically-generated vulnerabilities to their
own security, and are able to mobilized sufficient support to
overcome domestic security threat.

National resilience covers all aspects of national life, among
them: ideological, political, economic, sociocultural and
defense-security. The absence of armed rebellion at the local
level and of armed conflict among states does not in itself
insure security. The unconventional sources of instability in the
political, economic, social, humanitarian and ecological fields
have become threats to security. Security can only be achieved by
tackling the roots of human insecurity: poverty, environmental
degradation, ethnic and religious strife, injustice and inequity
at home and abroad.

National security transcend both national and sector borders.
They are common concerns that can be alleviated only by joint
actions and by elaboration of broad strategies. These concerns
oblige the national leadership to make a realistic ordering of
their national interests and priority, to select the appropriate
conditions for their security, and to avoid the likelihood that
they would waste their scarce resources. As a consequence, these
leaders can identify threats to their security and asses them in
a more realistic fashion.

Regional resilience basically means developing regional
cohesiveness by strengthening political cooperation and
solidarity on various fields of common endeavors. The
multilateral effectiveness of ASEAN is greatly reinforced by the
many bilateral links by the individual members. Links in the
fields of economics, technological, environmental, sociocultural,
educational and agricultural will have a strategic effects. But
it is perhaps in the field of bilateral military links that the
strategic effect is most pronounced, for bilateral military
cooperation has the double effect of both building up regional
confidence about national strategic intentions and, at the same
time, building up cooperative procedures to handle military
security problems should they arise.

Regional focus can be stressed without neglecting the
relations with states in her proximity on bilateral, regional and
global setting. When states are so situated that they impinge on
each other's security and domestic development, it becomes
imperative for them to interact with each other despite
fundamental systemic differences. Indonesia's agreement with
Australia, an extraregional power, should be understood that, in
terms of security linkages, progress developed beyond the
traditional geographic connotation and exclusiveness.

The security agreement provided the formal framework for
establishing linkages for all aspects of security cooperation,
which include:

* Economic cooperation through encouraging the expansion of
trade, investment, finance and communications ties. Technical
assistance as a means of helping to develop human resources.

* Cooperation in the utilization of resources and
environmental security to make exploitation and production modes
compatible with the requirements of a healthy environment, thus
making development sustainable for all foreseeable future.

* Defense cooperation offers the prospects of a more secure
strategic environment with higher confidence levels and lower
investment levels for individual countries. The focus is on the
development of "Maritime Surveillance and Safety" and "Airspace
Surveillance and Control" capabilities. If military armaments and
activities are the major threat to an otherwise stable condition,
the promotion of "transparency", through intelligence exchanges,
high-level official visits and joint exercises, can remove threat
perceptions and foster trust and confidence.

Brig. Gen. (ret.) Soedibyo is a former lecturer at the
National Resilience Institute and is now a researcher at the
Indonesian Institute for Strategic Studies, Jakarta.