Shedding a militaristic culture

Mohamad Surya Chairman Central Board Indonesian Teachers' Association (PGRI) Jakarta

Paramilitary groups are nonmilitary groups set up by particular individuals, organizations, institutions or groups that adopt patterns resembling military behavior in all their activities to pursue certain needs and goals. Although they are nonmilitary, their activities are, more often than not, based on military patterns, finally developing into what could be called a militaristic culture.

A militaristic culture is a manifestation of behavior by nonmilitary groups based on a way of thinking, action, attitude and feelings that resembles military behavior. Paramilitary groups with a militaristic culture identify themselves with patterns related to military procedures in all activities, which at times gives the impression that they are more militaristic in character than the real security forces.

In this context, everything is manifested in various forms and patterns such as the organizational structure (command, troops, units, corps, strategies, logistics, equipment, etc.), military symbols (uniforms, ranks, medals of merit, symbols, auxiliary instruments, etc.), attitude and actions such as speech, appearance and personal relationships as well as thinking patterns.

The development of paramilitary groups has been driven by the need of society for behavioral patterns that are characteristic of the military such as discipline, obedience, aggressiveness and alertness. These groups adopt patterns of military behavior, for example security guards, people's defense, task-force units and troops complete with military-like symbols and equipment.

As long as these groups adhere to the prevailing laws and function effectively in compliance with current regulations, their activities will be favorable and constructive in value, in a complementary, supplementary and substitutive manner, to efforts to establish security and order. What often happens, however, is that it takes the wrong form or becomes out of control resulting in various problems, constraints and disturbances.

The patterns of behavior of paramilitary groups and their militaristic culture constitute a certain psychological phenomena called identification and imitation; the military being the source to fulfill certain psychological drives. Identification is a process of putting the self or a group in a particular, desired situation while imitation is a type of fraud. In identification and imitation, there will be an internalization of the various aspects of military behavior in individuals or the group concerned. Later these individuals and groups make this behavior part of themselves until this militaristic behavior is a part of their persona. In general, youngsters are interested in identifying themselves with, or imitating military behavior.

Militaristic behavior represents one way to channel the urge to find and discover one's identity through a military image that creates the impression of someone being heroic, charismatic, strong, ready to fight, courageous and so forth.

One of the most prominent military characteristics adopted by the paramilitary groups is aggressiveness, which is manifested by attacking others for a particular purpose either physically or verbally, directly or indirectly, individually or in groups, reactively or proactively and actively or passively.

In terms of the goals, there are two kinds of aggressive behavior: Hostile aggressiveness and instrumental aggressiveness. In hostile aggressiveness, the purpose of aggressive behavior is to damage or cause loss to the party under attack. Usually this behavior will surface when there is an action that offends the dignity and respect of an individual or a group. In instrumental aggressiveness, aggressive behavior is intended, among other things, to gain attention and to show superiority. These two kinds of aggressive behavior may produce adverse results but can also generate a favorable outcome in certain conditions.

Paramilitary behavior and a militaristic culture are formed through interaction with the environment, whether it be within families or in schools as well as in the greater community. Some things that may give rise to aggressive behavior are: 1. An experience of frustration or disappointment due to a failure to achieve a certain goal, for example education, occupation, position and recognition. 2. A particular position or condition that will make someone assume paramilitary aggressive behavior with a certain method and goal. 3. Behavior in the home toward children that sets a bad example such as violence, rigidity, indifference, harassment, neglect or a poor religious foundation. 4. Negative influence from peers. 5. Unfavorable physical and nonphysical conditions such as slums, overcrowding, lack of hygiene, lack of food and certain medicines and other physical constraints. 6. Lack of role models such as politicians, leaders, parents, teachers and so forth presented through the mass media that should otherwise provide a good example. 7. Insufficient control over the laws and the implication of this control in the use of certain military symbols.

The fundamental thing is how to control paramilitary behavior and militaristic culture in a legal manner and in a way that is acceptable to society and complies with prevailing norms. All this must be attempted to prevent the negative impact and to take advantage of the positive aspects of paramilitary behavior. In this context, a psychological and pedagogic approach should be used, coupled with improvement in the socio-economic order in efforts that involve all concerned -- symbiotically, systemically and synergistically.

Some efforts which may be made in this context are: (a) improvement in social and economic life, including the creation of job opportunities so that the unemployment rate can be reduced and the labor force can be channeled productively; (b) the development of patterns of education that are broad and holistic; (c) enhancement of the quality of religiosity and surrender to God through quality religious education; (d) channeling of aggressive behavior into useful activities (e) consistent law enforcement, coupled with role-modeling from all parties in a social environment that is orderly, disciplined and clean (f) to present more selective and educational news and other information through the mass media.

The writer also lectures at the University of Indonesian Education (UPI), Bandung in West Java.