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Speculation intensifies over next TNI chief as Hadi moves closer to retirement
The 2004 TNI Law stipulates that its chief can be rotated among flag officers who hold or have held chief of staff positions within the three military services: the Army, the Air Force and the Navy.
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Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto (center) speaks during a hearing with House of Representatives Commission I, which oversees defense and foreign affairs, in this undated photo. (Courtesy of the Indonesian Military/-)
W
ith Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto set to retire in November, speculation has been rife over the next high-ranking officer who will succeed Hadi, the former Air Force chief of staff who was installed as the TNI leader in 2017.
The 2004 TNI Law stipulates that its chief can be rotated among flag officers who hold or have held chief of staff positions within the three military services: the Army, the Air Force and the Navy.
But analysts predict it would be a two-horse race between Army chief of staff Gen. Andika Perkasa and Navy chief of staff Adm. Yudo Margono Hadi.
Military expert Anton Aliabbas of the Paramadina University said Air Force chief of staff Air Chief Marshal Fadjar Prasetyo held an outside chance of being nominated by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo because of a post-New Order tradition that rotated the highest TNI position among armed services.
The post-New Order convention was for the TNI chief to be rotated in an Army-Navy-Army-Air Force pattern, after the top post had been filled by Army generals for the entirety of former president Soeharto’s 32 years in power. Jokowi broke the convention in 2015 when he nominated then-Army chief of staff Gatot Nurmantyo to succeed Moeldoko, who also came from the Army.
Anton said that while both Andika and Yudo had distinguished track records that would fit the bill for TNI chief, the candidate who earned Jokowi’s nomination could serve as an indication of the government’s defense policy going forward.
“If, for example, the Navy chief of staff [Yudo] is nominated, it will be perceived that President Jokowi wants to reaffirm [his] maritime fulcrum vision,” Anton told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
