TNI's territorial role is still needed: Agus

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian Military (TNI) Chief of Territorial Affairs Lt. Gen. Agus Widjojo defended on Thursday the military's territorial role, saying that it was still needed in observance of the country's defense requirements.

He said that the territorial role was still acceptable as long as its scope were restricted to the country's defense programs.

"Honestly, the TNI's territorial role is needed more because of the country's defense requirements, not because the TNI wants it," Agus said, while addressing the closing ceremony of a two- day seminar discussing the TNI's territorial role at the TNI headquarters in Cilangkap, East Jakarta.

The military's omnipresent and complex network of control over Indonesia's territory, ranging from the national to village command levels, have attracted strong criticism.

This extensive network is comprised of Regional Military Commands (Kodam) in nearly all of Indonesia's 32 provinces, Resort Military Commands (Korem) in small provinces, District Military Commands (Kodim) in regencies and mayoralties, Subdistrict Military Commands (Koramil) in subdistricts and Military Representative Posts in villages.

There has also been criticism of military chiefs' involvement in politics.

Agus defended that Kodam was still necessary as part of the country's defense strategy against any foreign intrusion.

"I think Kodam is still needed as a part of the national defense system," he said.

"Besides maintaining defense, Kodam can be given non-defense roles upon the request of the government," Agus said.

The three-star general said that only maintaining their territorial role would result in the TNI not being able to assume the roles of other institutions.

"TNI's non-defense roles if any, however, should not reduce its main role as a defense force," he said.

"In an effort to avoid any duplication, the TNI's territorial role should therefore be clearly stipulated in a law," he added.

The seminar concluded that, in the past the military and the police (which operated together as security and defense forces) only needed good coordination to perform their defense role.

"But at present, coordination on its own is not enough. TNI needs legal grounds for all of its actions," Agus said.

The seminar also concluded that the TNI needed to develop two approaches when imposing its territorial role in the future.

"For short term purposes, the territorial role has to be administered to create security among people, particularly for economic stability, without exaggerating it's security methods.

"In the long run, we should transfer our defense system from the Army defense system to the Marine defense system," Agus said.

He said the decision to transfer its defense orientation was made because the TNI has predicted that Indonesia would not receive any serious threat from foreign countries in the near future.

"While observing our nation's geography as an archipelagic country, our naval defense system is, therefore, very important," Agus said. (02)