Sjafrie installed as TNI spokesperson amid controversy

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Controversy continued to dog the selection of Maj. Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin as the new Indonesian Military (TNI) spokesman, as he disclosed a new policy that would restrict access to him.

In a press conference that followed a closed-door ceremony to mark the handover of the job, Sjafrie introduced a hierarchal structure of public relations in which the media would first be required to meet "a middle-ranking officer who holds the authority to answer questions over military issues."

"As part of our internal personnel development, we are obliged to do so, to train them to serve as spokespersons. But when it comes to TNI policy making, it's me, as TNI spokesman, or my deputy who will announce it the public," Sjafrie said.

In the past, the press was allowed access to the TNI spokesman any time.

The ceremony itself also raised many an eyebrow.

But the former TNI spokesman Rear Marshal Graito Usodo, who attended the press briefing, played down the way the ceremony was conducted.

"We declared it a closed-door event due to technical matters. It is purely a TNI internal affair. This is not the first time we held such a ceremony, because I experienced it when I took up the job from my predecessor," Graito said, seemingly in contradiction to the fact that he took over from Maj. Gen. Sudrajat in a ceremony which was indeed covered by the press in 1999.

Journalists were restricted from the ceremony on Monday, which took place at the TNI headquarters in Cilangkap, East Jakarta.

Sjafrie, also formerly the Jakarta Military commander, popular among women for his good looks, has been blamed for the death of four Trisakti University students in May 1998 when they, along with hundreds of other students, staged a rally in protest of former president Soeharto's 32 years of autocratic rule.

The Trisakti incident, which triggered three days of massive riots across the nation leaving no less than 1,000 people dead in Jakarta alone, had helped force Soeharto to step down.

Sjafrie, who graduated from the Armed Forces Academy (Akabri) in 1974 with the citation of best graduate, is also to be subpoenaed by the National Commission of Inquiry probing the Trisakti shooting incidents.

Coming from the ranks of the Kopassus elite Army corps, he served as one of former president Soeharto's adjutants, a prestigious and advantageous position for a military officer in the Soeharto era, from 1993 until 1995.

Sjafrie also has ample experience in military intelligence, as he was involved in operations in the country's conflict-prone areas, including Aceh.