TNI accused of ignoring defense white paper

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.