TNI told to focus on Navy, Air Force development
Muhammad Nafik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Given that external security threats are likely to come via the air and the sea, the Indonesian Military (TNI) should allocate a larger amount of funds to the Navy and the Air Force rather than the Army, noted military analysts argued on Monday.
They said that since former president Soeharto came to power in 1967, the Army, with around 230,000 men, had received the lion's share of annual state budget allocations to the military.
"This should be ended as the TNI has to concentrate on its duties of anticipating the sort of external security threats that could come via the territorial waters or the airspace of our country," military observer Kusnanto Anggoro told The Jakarta Post.
Under the 2002 state budget, the military has been allotted Rp 9.5 trillion (US$1.05 million), about 75 percent of which will be used to pay soldiers' wages. Meanwhile, the maintenance and modernization of the TNI's weaponry is currently bearing the brunt of the shortfall in funds.
The TNI comprises 230,000 members of the Army, 40,000 members of the Navy and 27,000 members of the Air Force. It has 117 ships operated by the Navy, but 70 of them are tied up while 64 percent of the Air Force's 220 aircraft are grounded.
Kusnanto, from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said he believed that most of the current budget allocated to the TNI would continue to be used to finance the operational activities of the powerful Army.
This meant that the military would still be focusing on building up defense and surveillance against internal security threats, such as separatism, which, actually, was mainly the responsibility of the National Police, Kusnanto said.
He criticized the move to provide more funds for the Army as at least 60 percent of its soldiers in the regional commands were not combat-ready, but were rather engaged in administrative duties.
After the police force was officially separated from the TNI last year, the TNI was assigned the task of focusing on defense against external threats, not internal security affairs.
Another military analyst, Ikrar Nusa Bhakti, said that for the next five to 10 years the TNI seemed not to be seriously considering defense measures aimed at countering possible threats from abroad.
"Consequently, most of the TNI's budget will continue to be allotted to the Army," Ikrar said.
However, Maj. Gen. Sudrajat, director-general of strategic defense at the Ministry of Defense, claimed that the budget allocations for the Army, Air Force and Navy were "almost equal". He declined to elaborate further.
He admitted that most of the funds would be spent on the TNI's routine costs, a large part of which went on the payment of soldiers' wages.
Ikrar, from the National Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said TNI leaders were still divided about whether to focus on anticipating internal or external threats.
But he stressed that the vested interests of generals had often contributed to their different points of view in deciding defense policy.
"Compared to Thailand, which is not a archipelagic country, Indonesia's speed in developing the arsenals of its Navy and Air Force has been very slow," Ikrar said.
A similar opinion was voiced by senior military observer Salim Said, who said that external-oriented defense should have been given priority by the military after it was split from the police.
"Considering that the maintenance or procurement of Navy warships and Air Force fighter planes as well as other weaponry is so expensive, why should the Army get a bigger allocation of the funds from the TNI?" he queried.
Despite the huge funds allocated to the TNI, generals have claimed that the Rp 9.5 trillion budget would be enough to cover only 30 percent of its routine and development expenses.
The shortfall of 70 percent would be covered by the profits from the military's obscure businesses, which many observers want to see scrapped or brought into the public domain.