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Defense gets biggest budget
The government has again increased the budget for the Defense Ministry, making it the ministry with the biggest budget allocation in the 2020 state budget
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span>The government has again increased the budget for the Defense Ministry, making it the ministry with the biggest budget allocation in the 2020 state budget.
The increase, a 16 percent hike compared to this year’s allocation, is aimed at helping the ministry meet the minimum essential force (MEF) target by 2024. The MEF is a 15-year scheme or medium-term plan, which is designed to support the Indonesian Military (TNI) to immediately replace its obsolete weaponry. Beginning in 2010, the program is divided into three five-year terms of strategic planning (Renstra).
Since 2015, the first year of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s first term, the Defense Ministry has received a significant increase in budgetary allocation each year with the exception of 2018, when it saw a decrease.
Originally, the Defense Ministry proposed an allocation of Rp 143.5 trillion (US$10 billion) for 2020, but the government has decided to give it Rp 127 trillion, up 16 percent from Rp 109 trillion this year. Compared to six years ago, the 2020 allocation is an increase of around 47 percent.
Finance Ministry defense budget director Dwi Pujiastuti Handayani confirmed the increase. However, she said the increase was mainly to cover the increased performance allowance for Defense Ministry employees, which needs around Rp 16.4 trillion.
Combined with spending on salaries, personnel expenditure and personnel welfare, the allowance spending makes up 41.6 percent of the Defense Ministry’s budget. In addition, around 32.9 percent will be for goods expenditure and 25.4 percent for capital expenditure.
The purchase of military equipment is predicted to reach Rp 14.5 trillion, while the maintenance budget is expected to reach a total of Rp 8 trillion, ranging from aircraft, warships to armored fighting vehicle maintenance.
Dwi said that although it was mainly for personnel expenditure, the 2020 defense budget was in line with Jokowi’s aim to modernize the military by updating the country’s main weaponry system.
The upgrade is not only to meet the MEF targets, as Jokowi has also been aiming to transform the TNI and the defense industry into a national force to be reckoned with in the region since he was first elected president.
“We’ve set the allocation according to the government’s priority programs and our fiscal capability in 2020,” Dwi told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
Military expert and senior fellow at human rights watchdog Imparsial, Anton Aliabbas, said the Defense Ministry should reform the use of its defense budget to make it more efficient considering the largest outlay was often on routine spending such as the performance allowance, while in fact Indonesia still has unsolved issues regarding its weaponry — both for combat and noncombat purposes. Anton said the readiness level of weaponry today was still below 70 percent, meaning that much of the country’s equipment cannot be effectively used for defense missions.
He said the government should make a limited amendment to the Defense Law and the TNI Law to regulate any financial assistance to the military units in the region coming from the regional administrations.
“This [direct assistance to the military units] is clearly illegal. On the other hand, the government ability is limited. Thus, any [financial] assistance from the regional administrations should be channeled through the Defense Ministry,” Anton said.
He criticized the use of the defense budget, which is mainly spent on personnel rather than on military equipment. “Without reform, no matter how much money is allocated, it will always be difficult for us to meet the MEF target,” he said.
The other problem, he said, was the absence of a comprehensive Strategic Defense Review (SDR) that is in line with Jokowi’s vision related to the Maritime Axis.
The strategic review is important as it will give more detail about the defense sector development plan. “Mentioning the threats in the 2015 Defense White Paper [DWP] is not enough because there is no further explanation of how to respond them, ranging from the strategy, budget, to the defense structure when facing the possible scenarios,” he said.
TNI commander Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto said the money would not be used only to purchase equipment, but the TNI would also spend around Rp 1.9 trillion to develop its new Special Operations Command (Koopssus), which he inaugurated in July.
The new operations command is tasked with antiterrorism missions inside and outside the country, in accordance with Law No. 5/2018, which stipulates the TNI’s duty in combating terrorism.
It is also a realization of the TNI’s strategy to strengthen the Air Force, Army and Navy.
However, experts have voiced their objections to the new command, saying the special forces should not be given authority to carry out counterterrorism duties such as surveillance, because such activity has been conducted by other institutions, such as the State Intelligence Agency or the TNI’s Strategic Intelligence Agency.
Defense Ministry secretary-general Agus Setiadji said the defense budget was actually still not enough as the TNI planned to add two new regional military commands (Kodam). ”Next year we will focus on the needs of the military forces, so it’s actually still lacking,” he said.
