Servicemen should not go into business, Hasnan says
Servicemen should not go into business, Hasnan says
JAKARTA (JP): A top military thinker has balked at the idea
that servicemen should go into business.
"If they're retired, it's a different story. But they should
never do so during active military service." said Lt. Gen. (ret)
Hasnan Habib in a discussion.
According to Hasnan, there is a fundamental difference between
servicemen and businessmen.
"(No one) does business (for reasons other than) to profit.
There's no way that servicemen should follow this way of
thinking," said Hasnan.
Servicemen, he said, should be ready at any time to defend the
country, never questioning superiors' orders, and should even be
willing to give up their lives to accomplish their tasks.
"So there is a totally different mentality between the two
(occupations)," he said in a discussion to mark the launching of
his book at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies on
Tuesday.
The 600-page book, titled Kapita Selekta: Strategi dan
Hubungan Internasional (Major Selection: Strategy and
International Relations) is a compilation of 37 papers he
presented at various seminars.
"The entire image of the institution would be tarnished if
soldiers are allowed to go into business," he said.
Hasnan acknowledged, however, that such a thing occurred in
other countries, like Thailand for example, which he said had the
most commercialized armed forces in the world.
He also reminded the audience of Indonesia's experience in the
early years of its existence when soldiers took over Dutch
companies.
"Look at what happened to all those companies," he said.
He said he was not sure whether a few officers of the Armed
Forces or the majority agreed with his line of thinking.
The discussion, moderated by political scientist J. Soedjati
Djiwandono, was attended by more than 100 scholars, servicemen
and government officials. They included Maj. Gen. (ret) Sahala
Rajagukguk, C.P.F. Luhulima, Cosmas Batubara, Nana Sutresna,
Franz Magnis-Suseno, Onghokham, Fikri Djufri, Sabam Siagian and
Djafar Assegaff.
Hasnan, who is now an assistant to the state minister of
research and technology and chairman for strategic industries at
the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology, has
served as ambassador to Thailand and the United States.
Apart from the discussion, participants lauded Hasnan's
bearing as a military man and a thinker.
"He is one of the moderate military men in the country whose
attitude we all respect and follow as an example," said
Rajagukguk, who once served under Hasnan. (hbk)