Susilo highly praises TNI's reform moves, gives civilians 'F'

Susilo highly praises TNI's reform moves, gives civilians 'F'

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono hailed on Tuesday the Indonesian Military (TNI)
for consistently upholding the reform agenda, which civilian
leaders had not done.

In a speech that he penned but was read by his secretary
before participants of a conference entitled "Lessons from the
Indonesian Transition: Setting a Future Reform Agenda", it went
on to say that seven years since the reform movement began in
1998, TNI has "played a significant role in creating a situation
that enabled a transitional period to democracy."

Susilo's statement asserted that civilian leaders had failed
to play their part.

"Despite the military's achievement, democratization will
still face difficulties if the other groups, such as political
parties, the bureaucracy and civil society, fail to reform
themselves," Susilo's statement said.

The speech was read by Susilo's secretary Sudi Silalahi. The
minister skipped the seminar organized by the United Nations
Support Facility for Indonesian Recovery (UNSFIR) as he was on an
overseas trip.

Susilo characterized TNI's all-out support for reform in its
acceptance to withdraw from practical politics, which was marked
by its exit from the House of Representatives and People's
Consultative Assembly, starting this year.

TNI has also abolished its socio-political doctrine, known as
dual-function, and has distanced itself from political parties in
a bid to improve its professionalism, Susilo claimed.

During the 32 years of Soeharto's New Order rule, the TNI (or
ABRI as it was called then) was a loyal supporter of the
authoritarian regime and took up key government and business jobs
at the expense of professional standards.

Soon after Soeharto stepped down in 1998, Susilo, who was then
the Armed Forces' chief for social and political affairs,
introduced the military's new paradigm in a show of support for
the reform movement.

The new paradigm stipulated the military's recognition of
civilian supremacy and readiness to share power with them.

However, the paradigm appeared to lose its relevance when the
Ministry of Defense revealed last year the White Paper on
National Defense Policy that recommends that the military's much-
criticized territorial function be maintained for defense
purposes.

Territorial function allows the military to maintain its old
power as territorial commanders pledge allegiance to the TNI
leadership over local governments. Think tank group ProPatria has
suggested that TNI fall under the auspices of a minister to make
the civilian supremacy over the military work in an effective
way.

Hasnan Habib, military analyst and former Armed Forces' chief
on social and political affairs, doubted the TNI's commitment to
reform.

"We have to examine whether or not the military is willing to
recognize the civilian supremacy and I say no. TNI is still
reluctant to do it because of a lack of trust in civilians,"
Hasnan told the seminar.

But Hasnan admitted no civilian leaders after Soeharto were
able to bring the country out of the crises, which include
serious security problems.

"Under Megawati's administration, TNI realizes that civilians
may not be able to deal with security problems countrywide,
particularly separatist movements. Civilians have also split and
fought for their own interests as proven in the emergence of
dozens of political parties," Hasnan said.