TNI's role in Indonesia
TNI's role in Indonesia
I understand the full support pak Soegih Arto has for the
Indonesian Military (TNI) as he is a retired military officer. If
KKN (corruption, collusion and nepotism) was all over the board
in Indonesia under Soeharto, it was mainly because lots of TNI
officers were involved in some monkey business.
KKN did not disappear suddenly with a civilian at the helm of
the country.
If we look at Indonesia today, it is clear that both the
National Police (Polri) and the TNI have continued to fail in
their unique and important mission to secure the country.
What happened and is still happening in Kalimantan reveals the
current strategy of the TNI and Polri. They have largely been
passive amid massacres. This was the case in Maluku and might be
applied one day soon in Irian Jaya.
There is no reason to embrace the TNI when we look at their
work in Sampit. The TNI and Polri only faced small groups of
Dayaks armed with swords; they had the arms and the intelligence
units, yet still they were unable to control the area.
The TNI has no interest in seeing a civilian government
succeed, it is only trying to prove that the TNI is important by
simply not doing its job. This is a shame.
If the TNI loves Indonesia, and is ready to sacrifice itself,
why do the generals do not show they are ready to sacrifice their
many advantages and bad-business practices?
Indonesia's real problem is not Gus Dur. It is people inside
and outside the TNI playing a very bad political chess game to
defend their own interests and not the ones of the Indonesian
population as a whole.
Politicians such as Yusril Mahendra and Amien Rais, who got
meager votes in the 1999 election, are busy trying to unseat Gus
Dur instead of trying to question the TNI and its failures in
securing the country -- which is the main problem if you want
to see a successful stabilizing of the economy and the rupiah.
Instead of TNI's sacrifice, I see an enormous mess created
with the indirect support of the TNI.
YVAN MAGAIN
Belgium