Yogie welcomes civilians' greater role

JAKARTA (JP): A minister and an Armed Forces legislator responded favorably yesterday to a scholar's recent revelation that many top bureaucratic positions are now occupied by civilians.

Minister of Home Affairs Moch. Yogie S.M. said the situation indicated civilians' greater political maturity and capability and was in sharp contrast to when the military dominated five years ago.

Deputy House Speaker Syarwan Hamid of the Armed Forces shared Yogie's view, adding that a person is not chosen for a position because of his or her background, but their ability and "acceptability".

Speaking to the press after addressing a three-day national meeting of the Foster Parents Movement at the Mulia Hotel here, Yogie was responding to scholar Juwono Sudarsono's comment that more government positions, especially those concerning technical and economic matters, have been occupied by civilians in the past five years.

Juwono, the deputy governor of the military think tank the National Resilience Institute (Lemhanas), said Tuesday that civilians' increasing role was concurrent with the Armed Forces members' declining degree of involvement in government affairs.

Yogie, who has a sound military career in the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) and territorial military command, said that decisions on whether a civilian or a military person occupies a government position should be in accordance with the job requirements.

"Certain positions may be suitable for civilians, while others for military officers," he said.

Syarwan said that the Armed Forces dual role doctrine -- which enables the military to play social and defense roles -- should not be seen as a military ploy to place its officers in government positions.

The military have long dominated the gubernatorial positions. Currently, 60 percent or 15 of the country's 27 provinces are led by military-based governors.

In Yogyakarta, political observer Arbi Sanit said that discourse on the rivalry or dichotomy between civilians and members of the Armed Forces was still relevant in politics today.

In a discussion at the Islamic University of Indonesia's Law School, Arbi said one reason why people still needed to talk about the subject was the absence of a system enabling fair competition for power.

"This shows that the Indonesian military is still dominating not only our political life but social, economic and possibly religious lives as well," he said.

He said the situation placed civilians in a corner.

He cited the number of civilian representatives in the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) compared to those of the military. There are 425 representatives for Indonesia's population of 200 million people, while the military, which has only about half a million members, has 75 representatives.

"In policy making as well as in the selection of a strategy or direction to deal with problems, it's always the military vision that is implemented," he added.

Yet, according to him, a particularly strong civilian society could endanger the system.

Weak

In the 1950s, for example, the state was too weak to control the civilian society. The government failed to deal with the emerging problems then because the civilians controlled the state.

"What's needed is a strong civilian society, but not enough to dominate the state, and a strong state which is not strong enough to dominate civilians," he said.

"In this case, a balanced cooperation between the power of the civilian society and that of the state is needed. This is what we need so that the military power will not dominate the political power in the future."

This, according to Arbi, can be achieved through democratization.

He said this could also be achieved by preventing the centralization of power in any particular party or institution, and by reexamining the military's dual role.

"The dual role concept is not democratic," Arbi said.

"Restoring political power to political parties, increasing professionalism among bureaucrats and improving the protection of human rights will also speed up the process (of democratization)," he added. (imn/swa)