TheJakartaPost
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After reforms, military needs good PR to avoid ‘endgame’
Take the plot in Avengers. In the movie, ultimate power would only be achieved if one has all six infinity stones: space, time, soul, power, mind and reality. Now, in this case, the Indonesian Air Force has all but one. #opinion
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Members from the Indonesian military's armoured division take part in a parade to mark the 72nd anniversary of the Indonesian military's founding in Cilegon on October 5, 2017. (AFP/Ricardo)
O
h my God, it was so hard to get a ticket to watch the Avengers: Endgamemovie. So, to celebrate the hardship leading to finally watching the movie, let me borrow its title for an analogy on the Indonesian Military (TNI). You can blame the film’s directors, the Russo brothers, for the hard time to get the movie tickets.
On May 8, quoting the social media handle of the Indonesian Air Force, The Jakarta Post published an article entitled “Indonesian Air Force to fly jet fighters to wake people for sahur”. I was furious about the story and furious is an understatement.
I and other people who know the background would understand the intended narrative. As part of their night-flight training, during the fasting month of Ramadan the Air Force does fly its jet fighters before dawn because this practice medically suits the fasting pilots.
However, the Air Force made it sound as if “jet fighters” and a religious ritual belong in the same sentence.
Sahur refers to eating pre-dawn meals before fasting. Unless the Air Force thinks Indonesia is a cult, the narrative of using jet fighters for a religious ritual is diplomatically fallacious — not to say totally crazy.
In any defense white paper, military operations are always divided into war and military operations other than war (e.g. disaster relief and/or mitigation).
There is never a military operation for religious rituals.
