TNI accused of ignoring defense white paper
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A senior official from the Ministry of Defense lamented on Wednesday that the Indonesian Military (TNI) had ignored the white paper on state defense and accused the armed forces of taking over defense policies.
Maj. Gen. Sudrajat, the Director General for Defense Strategy at the Ministry of Defense, also said that the TNI's repositioning had only created confusion as "it paves the way for the TNI to issue its own policies without the consent of the Ministry of Defense."
Such a situation, according to Sudrajat, has already affected the internal reform of the TNI, "which should be under civilian control; in this case the ministry of defense, and not the president".
To highlight his point, Sudrajat named several cases of military hardware procurement that sparked controversy among politicians and lawmakers, including the purchase of Russian-made Sukhoi jet fighters and Mi-17 assault helicopters and of Navy patrol boats by some provinces.
"Following the separation of the TNI and National Police, these two institutions are directly under the president. However, all policies regarding defense issues are determined at the Ministry of Defense, and indeed, we authored the white paper on defense policy last year.
"Many have asked whether the purchase of military hardware was part of the military's grand strategy as stipulated by the white paper, and we (the Ministry of Defense) replied, yes in part. Why? Because we never approved such purchases. The TNI proposed their own defense program to the President and secured approval from the latter. The President has the grand strategy," Sudrajat said in a discussion on TNI's reform.
The discussion focused on the relations between the Ministry of Defense and the TNI, and the poor implementation of the white paper as defense guidelines.
Present in the seminar were military analyst Kusnanto Anggoro from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and legislator Aisyah Amini from the United Development Party (PPP).
"We (the ministry) make policies on defense and we review them continuously, but the question is does the TNI accept the policies? As long as they (TNI) are under the President, they can go on with their own plans," the two-star general said.
Disputes between the Ministry of Defense and several high- ranking military officers at TNI headquarters surfaced last year, following a decision of the government (read: President Megawati Soekarnoputri) to purchase four Russian-made Sukhoi jet fighters for the Air Force and two Mi-35 assault helicopters for the Army.
Many questioned the prominent role of the Ministry of Industry and Trade in the deals, rather than the Ministry of Defense.
Also last year, the Navy signed several MOUs with provincial administrations to procure patrol boats, arguing that the country needed hundreds more boats to guard its vast sea territory while the central government only had a limited budget.
The TNI has again come under fire following the delay in the delivery of four helicopters priced at US$21.6 million from Russian firm Rosoboronexport, a plan which had actually been pursued by the Army since 2002, when TNI Chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto was appointed to the top military post.
In view of such cases, Kusnanto said the TNI had not yet made progress in internal reform as the institution still put itself in the forefront especially in dealing with its own interest.
"The purchase of military hardware showed us how the military achieved a fait accompli against the Ministry of Defense, even thought the move may create confusion in the future," Kusnanto said.