Indonesia must build defense strategy: Experts

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Wed, 09/05/2007 2:17 PM

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government is in hot water over its failure to establish a defense strategy or to provide a clear and reasonable defense budget.

""The government has never set up any master plan on how to shape the nation's defense position ... so they only make improvements based on annual standpoints during meetings on state budgets,"" Former Indonesian Military (TNI) Inspector General Lt. Gen. (ret) Djadja Suparman said Tuesday.

He said the government should cooperate with the House of Representatives to establish ""a grand military and defense strategy"".

""The government has not neglected the shaping of a good military and defense posture for the country ... (but there is a need) to prioritize other national interest in the state budget,"" Djadja said.

""I fully recognize they have prioritized other things, such as national education and the improvement of public health, so let us wait and see.""

Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono said the defense allocation in the 2007 state budget was Rp 18 trillion (around US$ 1.9 billion).

Some Rp 9 trillion has been allocated to the Army, while the Navy and Air Force received around Rp 4.5 trillion (US$ 494 million) each.

The Indonesian defense budget is the second smallest in Southeast Asia, at 1 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The smallest defense budget is Laos, at 0.4 percent of the Laotian GDP.

Brunei Darussalam holds top position in the region with its US$6 billion defense budget, or 6 percent of their GDP.

A member of Commission I of the House of Representatives overseeing defense, Yudhy Chrisnandi said the government should take full responsibility for the defense plan.

Yudhy said the commission was only tasked to scrutinize the government's budget proposal to avoid any future misconduct.

""The problem is that Ministry of Defense officials have often failed to meet our requirement of ... transparency in explaining their defense projections,"" he said.

""We often have to reallocate the funds for the military's welfare.""

The Indonesian military consists of 376,375 personnel in three armed forces branches -- the Army with 288,857 soldiers, the Navy with 59,189 sailors and the Air Force with 28,329 personnel.

These forces are poorly equipped with most military equipment being 25 to 40 years old, Yudhy said.

Philipp Fluri of the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces said the Indonesian military had to set priorities in planning its military strategy so they could focus on reinforcing their resources throughout the country.

He said the country must develop relations with neighboring countries and international agencies in order to face common enemies in the future. (10)

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