TNI is a political enigma
The appointment of four active military officers to nonmilitary posts in the new Cabinet on Friday runs counter to the recent drive to phase the Indonesian Military (TNI) gradually out of politics. Coming after repeated pledges from TNI to stay out of politics, and after it kept its pledge to remain neutral in the election of the president and vice president, the inclusion of the senior ranking officers in President Abdurrahman Wahid's Cabinet sends confusing signals about the real intentions of the military leadership.
The decision by the TNI faction in the People's Consultative Assembly not to put forward its own nominations in the presidential and vice presidential elections, and former TNI chief Gen. Wiranto gracefully refusing the vice presidential nomination remain fresh in our minds. Wiranto earned deserving praise for his decision, which helped avoid the scenario of the TNI faction flexing its muscles to support him in a race against Megawati Soekarnoputri. By withdrawing, Wiranto prevented what could have been an ugly political confrontation in the Assembly.
With the inclusion of a number of high-ranking TNI officers in the Cabinet, questions are raised about how serious the military is in its stated plan to withdraw from politics. It was not so much the numbers involved or the people selected for the Cabinet which concerned critics, but the revelation that Gen. Wiranto was consulted in the selection process. President Abdurrahman's Cabinet is the result of bargaining among the country's major political forces, TNI included. And Gen. Wiranto could not resist joining this political horse-trading, thus securing Cabinet posts for himself and his colleagues.
While we do not doubt the capability and integrity of Lt. Gen. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Lt. Gen. Agum Gumelar, Rear Adm. Freddy Numberi and Gen. Wiranto, their acceptance of the Cabinet posts defied TNI's stated commitment to leave politics to the civilians. They are setting a dangerous new precedent which could be used by junior officers to seek for themselves nonmilitary posts in central or regional administrations.
While it is unclear what TNI conceded in the formation of the Cabinet, popular opinion seems to be that TNI gave up a lot, particularly when one considers that in the past all strategic Cabinet posts went to the military.
The appointment of respected scholar Juwono Sudarsono as minister of defense has given the appearance of civilian supremacy over the military. But as Abdurrahman disclosed, it was Wiranto himself who put forward Juwono as his successor. Claims of civilian supremacy over the military must be tempered by the fact that Juwono is known as a staunch defender of TNI's political role. He caused an uproar last year when he said civilians were not as well prepared as the Indonesian Military to lead the country. Juwono made this statement while serving as deputy governor of the National Resilience Institute, a military think tank. He must now prove he is no military lackey.
Fueling the debate over the military's political role was a statement on Thursday by Maj. Gen. Agus Wirahadikusumah, the assistant for general planning to the Army chief of staff, calling for an end to TNI's political role, which he said prevented the military from improving its professionalism. He also called for the new military leadership to purge officers with strong links to the tyrannical New Order regime.
While this view has been raised by critics of the military for years, it is encouraging to see TNI officers becoming bold enough to air this same opinion. It remains to be seen how prevalent this view is among current military leaders, but for TNI's own sake and survival, military reform should come from within rather than being imposed from the outside.
The military leadership eventually must come to terms with the reality that its role in politics in this increasingly complex world is becoming less and less defensible, particularly in the democratic new Indonesia. The Assembly has ruled that the military would be phased out of politics by 2004, and it would have been ideal to simply leave it to President Abdurrahman to carry out this mandate. However, the appointment of four active military officers to the Cabinet indicates that outside pressure must still be brought to bear upon the military and the new government to make this goal a reality.