Yogie welcomes civilians' greater role

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)