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Jokowi’s national-security leadership is personalized
President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo would appoint officers that he personally knew, or a key ally knew, and has had close working experience with, to strategic posts.
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President Joko “Jokowi“ Widodo installs Adm. Yudo Margono as the Indonesian Military (TNI) chief at the State Palace, Central Jakarta, on Dec. 19, 2022. (Cabinet Secretariat Public Relations/Rahmat)
T
he newly sworn-in Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Adm. Yudo Margono is only the third naval officer to hold the chief post, and the first one after almost 10 years. He has a 34-year career in the Navy and attained the top job in the service on May 20, 2020. His inauguration has restored a custom in the armed forces established some 20 years ago that the military chief is rotated among the three services.
Yudo took over the TNI command baton from Gen. Andika Perkasa of the Army, who retired from the military service at the end of December 2022. Andika served in the post for about a year, topping a 35-year career, of which most was served in the special forces and intelligence: a well-versed officer with extensive academic pursuits in the United States.
Andika himself was appointed to fill the post previously occupied by Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto. The latter served for almost four years as the commander, a rarity for this strategic position, particularly in the last 24 years. His tenure overlapped with the 2019 presidential election and was able to navigate the military to stay at a distance from the contentious campaigning of that period.
It was also in Hadi’s time that the military completed an expansion of its structure that for the most part was tuned toward accommodating a surplus in the number of senior officers. Numerous command and staff positions were created at the TNI headquarters as well as posts across the archipelago. While this has been a long-standing problem in the military, this policy at least ameliorates some of the personnel pressure at the senior ranks.
These military commanders follow a more recent pattern where President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo would appoint officers that he personally knew -- or a key ally knew -- and has had close working experience. Along the same vein, the President could also claim the uptake from the above-mentioned organizational reform.
A critical juncture in Yudo’s path was his appointment as the commander of the Western Indonesia joint-defense command from 2019 until his promotion as the Navy chief. During this time, he was considered instrumental in the initial phase of Indonesia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic by organizing repatriation of Indonesians from China and establishing a massive isolation and care facility in Jakarta, the epicenter of the pandemic.
Yudo’s stewardship during the biggest naval accident in TNI’s history was considered commendable. When the submarine KRI Nanggala-402 with all hands sank in an exercise, he led the recovery not only of the boat but also the morale among sailors. In the political space, he enlists strong patronage that could provide important support.
