White paper on national defense policy launched

White paper on national defense policy launched

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government launched on Monday a white paper on defense
strategy, which calls for maintaining the military's much-
criticized territorial function.

The territorial function, which includes Army bases and posts
at all administration levels down to the village level, has been
blamed for TNI's dominating political role during the leadership
of former president Soeharto.

The white paper, authored by the Defense Ministry, describes
various threats facing the country in the 21st century, including
separatist movements, terrorism, piracy, illegal logging and
people trafficking.

According to the Defense Ministry's director general for
defense strategy Maj. Gen. Sudrajat, the Indonesian military's
territorial function was still relevant in order to develop the
country's defense strength.

"Indonesia is not an established country like the United
States or Britain. Armed separatist movements mar the country,
while the police currently face difficulties in coping with armed
separatist movements," Sudrajat said during a seminar marking the
white paper's official launching.

He, nevertheless, added that the government should strictly
monitor the its territorial function to prevent deviation from
the socio-political context.

The seminar also included Indonesian Institute of Sciences
(LIPI) member Dewi Fortuna Anwar, the British Ambassador to
Indonesia Richard Gozney, several military attaches from friendly
countries, as well as experts and military analysts from various
institutions.

The white paper was presented in an attempt to help the public
understand the key points of Indonesia's defense concepts and
strategy following the separation of the National Police from the
Indonesian military (TNI) in 2000.

According to the People's Consultative Assembly (DPR) decree
No. 7/2000, the police force is now tasked with handling domestic
security, while the TNI is supposed to be limited to defending
the country from external security threats. However, the military
has reserved the right to decide if it needs to intervene in
handling domestic security issues.

The 1998 reform movement also sought to scrap the TNI's socio-
political function known as dwifungsi, or dual function, on the
grounds that the military, specifically the Army, has long abused
the role for certain interests.

Dewi, one of the speakers at the seminar, said that the
decision to keep the TNI's territorial function was due to "the
military's wariness that scrapping its territorial function would
betray the institution's dual function."

"I think the wariness is no longer relevant because I don't
see that people will condemn its defense force if they carried
out their own duties properly.

"Meanwhile, a close relationship between the military and
civilians creates negative influences for the soldiers because
civilians have different values which often contradict military
values, especially in dealing with political and business
matters," Dewi said.

Meanwhile, Rizal Sukma of the Centre for Strategic and
International Studies (CSIS) said the territorial function was
not only the answer to the separatist issues in the country,
because "what we need is a development of the defense force that
enables us to deal with various external threats."

"There are also threats of illegal logging, or women and
children trafficking, or piracy. I don't know how the Army with
its omnipresence of military commands copes with these," Rizal
said.