Letters: The ex-generals' political views

Tue, 06/02/2009 2:05 PM  |  Reader's Forum

There are about 30 retired TNI generals registered to back both JK-Win and Mega-Pro, who will be the opponents of a number of other generals who had backed SBY/Democratic Party since the legislative elections held on April 2009.

Most of the generals who back JK-Win and Mega-Pro are former army generals who occupied various important jobs all around the country. The attitudes to back both JK-Win and Mega-Pro of those generals have been attracting many political observers who ask, why don't those general join SBY-Boediono?

So far, according to various surveys held by several survey organizations, SBY is considered the strongest presidential candidate for the July 8 election. But why don't retired generals support SBY? Below are possible answers.

First, it was unfortunate that the reformation era has, among others, raised the idea of abolishing the territorial function of TNI; many civilian intellectuals thought TNI's territorial doctrine was a part of TNI's dual functions, which allow TNI to play practical politics. Various retired TNI officers, especially army generals, have not been satisfied with President SBY's leadership performance as the idea of abolishing the TNI's territorial function among the civilians is continuing.

Second, ideologically, various retired TNI officers, mostly generals, have not been satisfied with SBY's leadership performance as he has not made significant and militant efforts to revive the Pancasila philosophy in response to the declining attention among the Indonesian people.

Most retired generals have been so concerned that this kind of attitude toward the Pancasila philosophy will unlikely be recognized by the young Indonesian generation in 2014, when all of the old Indonesian generation will have left the national leadership arena. The President is also head of the state; he is responsible for the protection, maintenance and strength of the Pancasila philosophy as the foundation of the state. But those generals unlikely saw the concrete and firm action of SBY to protect, to maintain and to strengthen the Pancasila ideology.

The third reason is that most of the generals now joining JK-Win and Mega-Pro are among the army retired generals who, since they were still young lieutenants freshly graduated from the National Military Academy until their retirement, they had been living together with the people in the villages, in the countryside and in the remote rural areas and most of the generals realize that those people are still living poorly until now and the poverty is still existing every where in the country.

BLT (the direct aid in cash) to the poor clearly has not been the proper solution of this situation; it has been apparently only a means to prevent those poor people from rebelling. So the People's Economic Development concept offered by one of the presidential running mates is considered as the pertinent agenda for the people by most of the retired Army generals.

Though those generals have no idea how to join the debate on the neoliberalist economic development concept today, they realize economic progress now is only enjoyed by certain groups of people and the poverty is still existing significantly everywhere in our country.

I do not belong to any group, but besides my personal respect to SBY, I also convey my sympathy and my support to the struggle of those generals.

Soedibyo
Jakarta

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