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