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rom drug trafficking, illegal fishing and food self-sufficiency to corruption, the current government is seen to be taking several political issues beyond the established rules of the game and framing them either as a special kind of politics or as being above politics.

While these acts benefit the issues with a significantly higher amount of attention and resources allocated to solving the problems compared to the previous government period, the process of transforming subjects into a matter of security carries possible dangers that need to be considered.

President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo has declined to pardon foreign drug traffickers facing execution by firing squad, rejecting pleas from leaders of Australia, Brazil and France as well as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. He has also ordered the Navy to sink illegal fishing boats, and 18 boats from Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam were blown up between October 2014 and March 2015, with 41 more on May 20, 2015, including one Chinese vessel.

Involvement of the military in non-military issues can also be seen in Jokowi'€™s goal to achieve food self-sufficiency. The President has instructed the Agriculture Ministry to cooperate with the Army to achieve self-sufficiency in three years. Fifty thousand Babinsa (village supervisory non-commissioned officers) have been assigned to provide assistance to farmers.

Last, the conflict between the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the National Police (Polri) has led to discourse on the commission recruiting investigators from the Indonesian Military (TNI).

The scope of the issue could grow as Jokowi is reportedly reviewing the expansion of the TNI'€™s involvement in civil institutions. It leads to concerns about whether there will be a reboot of the New Order Era dwifungsi (dual function) doctrine.

The government'€™s extreme politicization of the above issues can be viewed as securitization. Within international relations studies, securitization is defined as presenting an issue as an existential threat, requiring emergency measures and justifying actions outside the normal bounds of political procedures.

Securitized issues do not necessarily represent issues that are essential to the objective survival of a state, but rather issues that receive top priority in security discourse.

Top-priority issues mean the subjects receive a disproportionate amount of attention and resources, often legitimizing emergency or warlike means to solve a problem. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on US soil, the George W. Bush administration securitized the terrorist threat and justified emergency measures such as torture and war as a means to combat terrorism. People were detained without trial; prisoner abuse, torture and rendition were used; and the military prison at the US Guantanamo Bay naval base in Cuba was widely criticized.

Mexico'€™s securitization on drug trafficking led the Ernesto Zedillo (1994-2000) administration to increase intervention of the military forces, which was continued by Vicente Fox'€™s presidency.

The succeeding Felipe Calderón administration intensified the involvement of the military in counter-drug trafficking more than ever, leading to the ongoing war on drugs that so far has taken the lives of tens of thousands of people.

Soldiers receive physical, technical and psychological drills to fight and engage in military operations, not to provide agricultural counseling nor to make farmer groups. They are trained to kill or be killed, not to take criminal offenders into custody.

More fundamentally, the military'€™s tasks are the defense of the state from existential threats and the prosecution of war against another state. Assigning them home affairs is out of proportion.

The current government'€™s securitization of several political issues may be caused by a lack of faith in civil institutions and incommensurate trust in the military, leading to better acceptance by the public.

The findings of a national survey conducted by Poltracking last March confirm this. Several civil institutions ranked atop the public dissatisfaction ratings, with the House of Representatives (DPR), political parties and Polri filling the top three spots. The TNI, on the contrary, gained the runner-up position in the satisfaction ratings, below only the KPK and above the General Elections Commission (KPU).

However, the solution to underperforming civil institutions is capacity building, not transfer of their roles to the military. Then again, the TNI is not without faults: in 2013 KPK deputy chief Adnan Pandu Praja confirmed that the TNI was not free from corruption, but the KPK Law restricted the commission from investigating the military institution.

There are also disciplinary problems within the TNI, with soldiers caught in possession of drugs and committing immoral acts. A recent brawl among soldiers from different forces in a karaoke parlor in the Central Java town of Sukoharjo left one dead.

The government'€™s securitization efforts will risk legitimizing inordinate emergency or warlike means as well as excessive military involvement in civil affairs. Contrariwise, the subpar performance of civil institutions would need capacity building while the TNI needs to be a more professional armed force.
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The writer teaches international security studies at the Department of International Relations, Binus University, Jakarta.