Retired officers recruited for wealth of `strategic expertise'

The Jakarta Post ,  JAKARTA   |  Tue, 05/26/2009 12:34 PM  |  Headlines

The sound of a military march is echoing as retired generals behind all three presidential candidates suit up once again to put into use the best of their training in strategy and their networks ahead of the July presidential poll, experts said Monday.

Ikrar Nusa Bhakti, a political observer from the Indonesia Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said all candidates would likely use military strategies to earn votes by recruiting retired generals.

"As all three tickets have military backgrounds, they will use the connection with the military," Ikrar told The Jakarta Post.

President Gen. (ret) Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, bidding for the presidency with his running mate former Bank Indonesia governor Boediono, was head of the military's territorial staff in 1999.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla's running mate Gen. (ret) Wiranto was the military chief in the same year, while Prabowo Subianto, Megawati Soekarnoputri's running mate, was former chief of the Army's Strategic Reserve Command (Kostrad) and Army Special Forces (Kopassus) commander.

As a president who also served as the highest military commander, Yudhoyono has a strong chance of getting military support behind him, Ikrar said. He added Megawati would also benefit greatly from Prabowo's background, saying his experience commanding strategic units like Kostrad and Kopassus had left strong connections with retired generals from the forces.

"From a military viewpoint, Megawati-Prabowo may be a stronger ticket than Kalla-Wiranto to face Yudhoyono-Boediono," Ikrar said.

Wiranto has less influence among leading military families, despite his last tour of duty as the Indonesia Military commander, Ikrar said.

"Wiranto has never commanded strategic forces," he pointed out.

However, many of the retired generals behind Kalla-Wiranto attained higher ranks than those behind Megawati-Prabowo.

Yudhoyono and Boediono have at least three retired four-star generals of note behind them: former military chief Marshall (ret) Djoko Suyanto, former Air Force chief of staff Marshall (ret) Herman Prayitno and former police chief Gen. (ret) Sutanto.

While Ikrar was concerned about "military-style" efforts to gain votes, claiming the alleged electoral roll fraud in the April legislative elections "was because of intelligence operations", the University of Indonesia's Maswadi Rauf said the retired officers would only use their "strategic expertise", and not soldiers or weapons.

"They are civilians now, just like you and I," the lecturer said. (bbs)

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